Help Stop eBook Censorship

[EroAuthor]

Just in case you didn’t know: the market for erotica, erotic romance, and romance stories has exploded as ebook readers have become more popular. People love sex, whether it’s watching it, having it, or reading about it. Now that people can purchase whatever type of kinky read they want privately, people have been using their mobile readers to buy the type of story they want.

Many ebook distributors have picked up on this trend. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords, to name a few, all offer erotica sections filled to the brim with whatever niche of sexy story you find most exciting.

However, with the rise in popularity of stories depicting sex has come the rise of those who want to censor it. People seem to forget that what happens in a work of fiction is exactly that: fiction. It’s entirely made up. In particular, there are a few hot-button kinks that seem to get certain distributors’ panties in a bunch. The most common kinks to suffer censoring are pseudo incest (sexual relations between family members not related by blood) and dubious consent (a story where the consent for sex is implied).

In particular, a few ebook distributors have gone on what can be likened to a moral crusade, trying to disallow any stories they deem reprehensible, often using arbitrary standards to get rid of anything they want.

All Romance eBooks is particularly guilty of this. They claim to not want to sell these types of erotic stories, that they aren’t appropriate for their customers. All the erotic authors I know of who published these types of erotic stories through All Romance eBooks found them to be their best sellers. That is, before All Romance eBooks decided to tell the customers what they should buy. I myself experienced success through this distributor before they decided to arbitrarily get rid of me for making them money.

You tell me: is it a smart move in any way to refuse to publish what your customers want?

If you can take a moment, please sign this petition to show All Romance eBooks that it is not okay to censor works of fiction. Stand up for the rights of authors to write what they want, and the rights of readers to purchase and read the types of stories they want.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please use this thread to discuss hot-button issues in the new world of ebooks like erotica and censorship.

[ucfgrad93]

Businesses have every right to determine what they sell. Just because you write books doesn't mean All Romance eBooks has to sell them.

[sunnysmiles]

I do not like to read erotica and I certainly don't like to see it on Amazon UK when I'm looking for books some of it is down right Pornographic to look at . I wont sign the petition every one has the right to sell according to their conscience or morals .

[FizzyWater]

I thought it was these particular forms of erotic literature that was losing sites the ability to use PayPal, so they were choosing to limit these rather than stop using PayPal. The good of the many outweighing the good of the few?

Didn't this come up a couple of months ago, and affected Smashwords in specific (I think that was the thread topic - that it specifically affected Smashwords).

This just sounds like an overwrought attempt to stir up sh*t.

[Rob Lister]

nobody is censoring anything.

[Dulin's Books]

instead of setting up petitions you should see this as an entrepreneurial opportunity. you should set up erotica ebooks distribution .com and sell your books tht way and also become a reseller for others who have been pushed out of other distribution channels

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by EroAuthor

The most common kinks to suffer censoring are pseudo incest (sexual relations between family members not related by blood) and dubious consent (a story where the consent for sex is implied).

So are you OK with the business having standards, just not with the standards they set?

This is an old story. I'm no erotica fan, but I love the Quartet Erotica song:

Rabelais, De Maupassant, Boccaccio, Balzac—
Once we were quite the lads;
We thought that our erotica
Was very, very hotica,
But now we’re only four unsullied Galahads,

Rabelais, Balzac, De Maupassant, Boccaccio—
Babes in the wood are we.
The dirt we used to dish up,
Sad to say,
Wouldn’t shock a bishop
Of today;
A volume like Ulysses
Makes us look like four big sissies

-- Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg, 1934


P.S. The song start is here. Hear it all for free at advertising-supported Spotify.com.

[Penforhire]

This isn't the type of censorship I fight. This isn't a government position nor is it the position of a monopoly. If you don't like All Romance's stance then, by all means, write them to complain, buy elsewhere, or set up your own competing e-commerce site. The barriers to entry for e-commerce are lower than they've ever been.

[Giggleton]

This is self-censorship, something that we are all capable of doing at one time or another. But since this censorship doesn't actually stop the creator from creating, I don't think it is anything to get hung about.

[applesauce]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

So are you OK with the business having standards, just not with the standards they set?

I have to say I agree. It very much says I want my rules for an organisation I want to belong to. It is not a restriction on somebodies right to write what they want.

applesauce

[mr ploppy]

It's not just filth, I had a story that contained no sex of any type banned by Barnes & Noble recently (though they have since reinstated it after I made a fuss). These sort of clampdowns always start with something that is difficult for libertarians to defend, then once they have the precendent they start chipping away at everything else.

[plib]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

It's not just filth, I had a story that contained no sex of any type banned by Barnes & Noble recently (though they have since reinstated it after I made a fuss). These sort of clampdowns always start with something that is difficult for libertarians to defend, then once they have the precendent they start chipping away at everything else.

Although "filth" is very much in the eye of the beholder I do agree that the "thin end of the wedge" tactic is pretty standard SOP from people with a larger agenda than they're originally willing to admit.

[martienne]

I am not a fan of such books but it seems utterly pointless to attempt to censor it.
No censoring is possible online, at least not to half-savvy techies unless the whole internet is locked down with something harsher than what China currently uses.
If you are an erotic book fan you have nothing to worry about.

[spindlegirl]

I am not into erotica literature by any means, but I do think that every store has a right to sell what they want. I know if I were a seller, I would most certainly want to have the authority to determine what goes into my shop. If it meant a large group of people were unsatisfied, well, it is not the seller's problem.

Since this genre is popular and is a hot seller, surely it's possible to submit work to sites dedicated to that?

I tend to agree with the above opinions.

[HansTWN]

It is, of course, true that book sellers should have the right to decide what they want to sell. Unfortunately the system seems to have been perverted by a very small, but vocal and active minority of the public that wants to impose their morals on others and businesses decide to give in and get rid of any "offending" items rather than fight it.

But we can't blame it on the businesses, but rather on those who fail to stand up for freedom of speech.