Some good points. It is unfortunate that Amazon does things the way they do as it leads to potential misunderstandings. I don't have a quarrel with them deciding what they will and won't offer for sale as that is their right as the store owner. My concern is that they leave it uncertain as to why they do it, which leads to not being sure that a given author's work will or won't be welcome. Which no doubt leads to the self-censorship you mention caleb. I mean why should an author try to get their work published via Amazon if they have no assurance their work won't vanish off the electronic book shelves without warning? That's why I think Amazon should give a reason why when they remove books. The law may not require it but it would certainly be the polite thing to do so others know where they stand, and so the rest of us could know it wasn't the sensibilities of a few deciding what the rest of us are allowed to read.
Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb72
I'm not quite ready to jump on the bigot bandwagon with Amazon yet. They publish m/m erotica freely.
Yes, this is the second incident made public (that I'm aware of) where the content has happened to be m/m but I do think the first incident - How to Rape a Straight Guy - was a misunderstanding based on the title rather than a bigoted action against gay content. In the end, all content was restored.
I don't like the idea of content being removed myself:
1) It's against the ideal Amazon set up in the first place
2) The size and scope of Amazon as an ebook retailer internationally makes books being banned a rather detrimental thing for authors of those types of books
3) I'm always worried that the threat of point 2 eventually leads to a self-censorship that I take to be detrimental to us as readers
I'm talking of course of concerns I have about these things from a wider perspective. I am not saying that Amazon has to do anything and I'm not saying that they are bigots. That's a word I'm not so anxious to use on people or organisations unless I'm quite sure.
Regards
Caleb
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