[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Yes, it wasn't as if Amazon were removing the same types of books and it was WH Smith that started it. Oh, and don't blame any of the self-pubbed authors for using atrociously explicit covers and not tagging their books correctly or willfully putting them into categories where they definitely don't belong. Kobo is the only guilty party here.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Hey, at least now Kobo has their own haters club, just like Amazon and Apple and Microsoft.
They rank with the big boys!

Amazon has been hammered for taking down a variety of different titles due to their erotic nature. Some of those were in line with the "showing people how to rape a child" theme, some were homosexual in nature, and others were hard core erotica. I don't remember any of them coming up in regular searches but things that were found by puritanical individuals who simply don't like erotica or homosexuality.

I don't think anyone has a problem with removing how to manuals for any type of rape, child or adult. Pornographic images of kids and the like are not ok. But that crossed into the Manga debate where there is an entire line of books that some deem wrong and others deem to be fine because the characters are legal age but dressed to look like kids.

Long and the short of it, Amazon has dealt with this a ton of times and has been pulverized on this site for taking down all but the worst case books. Kobo has gotten off really, really light based on what I am reading here.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Just as a note--I follow a few writer forums and Amazon has been quietly removing books of a certain type for at least two months. The legality of the material puts the material in question as well as the marketing methods used (not categorizing the books correctly and they end up showing in Children's, YA and so on. Some of the covers alone should not be displayed in these areas.)

There are laws about explicit covers being in places where children can see them, which is one of the reasons certain material is kept behind counters in stores.

It is rumored that Amazon is employing some sort of scanning program to scan for illegal or marginal material and pulling such books. By marginal, there are lots of techniques employed to get around rules, but the intent may in fact be to sell material that is illegal.

I hate this topic, I really do. There is some bad stuff out there hiding behind "erotica" that should have never been allowed.

Yes, Amazon removes stuff. I don't think it is rumored, it has been discussed whenever it has been announced by an author whose work was pulled. And then people pull out bats and iron bars and scream about Amazon being evil and censorship and how Amazon is caving to the Puritans and call for a boycott of Amazon. I believe Amazon's search engine does a good job of preventing people from randomly coming across a title that falls into the erotica lable and I have a feeling that Amazon learned a long time ago to be careful when it accepts an independent book into the store.

Originally Posted by HarryT

I believe that "erotica" is a very good seller, especially to female readers, but what proportion of erotica is the explicit content that's being objected to, who knows?

I thought that there were studies that show that Erotica and Romance were two of the best sellers for e-readers. I know romance is huge. The Erotica that I have read is really tame (even looking into the suggestions that folks here have made). Anyone interested in erotica is better off looking at Literotica on the web then most of the books that I have seen.