Amazon's love-hate for Kindle porn

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

What else is new? It's always the porn.

I've come across many articles stating that:

Porn was the best selling genre on VHS, on DVD, and now on Blu-Ray. Porn sites are the most visited sites on the internet. Products that are advertised using sexually charged imags sell better. Porn magazines are the best selling magazines.

And now... Porn is the best selling genre on the Kindle.

It seems the only thing many people want is sex, and without it, we wouldn't have had VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, OR books and magazines, or at least, a lot less.

Sex and gambling! The big sellers.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

It may have, but there's not really any evidence of this, and I'm not buying it. The only evidence we do have is a porn writer's blog in which she claims that porn drove "sales of the Kindle to astronomical numbers".

I'm not buying it; all I see is a disgruntled author making stuff up for marketing purposes.

Porn is certainly a passenger, but I think not the driver.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by frahse

Aha, the package wrapped in brown paper, and neatly tied with a brown cord, from beneath the counter!

The brown-paper-bag model will be known as the Kindle "Touch".

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by frahse

Porn is certainly a passenger, but I think not the driver.

This.
Nicely stated.

eBook erotica/porn/etc predates Kindle and has a home there (as well as on Nook, Kobo, etc) but is very unlikely to have sold more Kindles than Romance or even SF. For one thing a good portion of it is sold direct, bypassing Kindle and the other mainstream ebookstores.

If you tally up genres by sales volume on any given platform, erotica will doubtless show up in the top 10 but I seriously doubt it will crack the top 5. Not sure I could say the same about christian fiction, to bring in another under-rated genre/category.

[carld]

I would say yeah, the Kindle, combined with Amazon's ebook ecosystem, is pretty much the perfect delivery apparatus. The variety of titles is rather astounding, and Rule 34 definitely applies. The ease of getting "home made porn" (fanfiction) onto the system also helps.

Of course what that has done for Kindle sales, if anything at all, is speculation. My guess is that the privacy aspect has helped push sales a bit, but how much is just a guess.

[Catlady]

How is there real privacy when Amazon knows exactly what you put on your Kindle?

[crich70]

It doesn't suprise me any. Sex sells, always has and always will. Why else do advertizers have beautiful women modeling so many products in ads.

[rkw]

Hmm... so, does Robert Galbraith read stealthy PRON on "his" Kindle??

[SouthernSun]

Originally Posted by rkw

Hmm... so, does Robert Galbraith read stealthy PRON on "his" Kindle??

I must be missing something. JK Rowling has nothing to do with this topic.

[forsooth]

I think Kindle like big Airbus.
if Amazon show passenger manifest!

be very interesting!

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

The brown-paper-bag model will be known as the Kindle "Touch".

Or maybe the Fondle?

[bucsie]

I for one have read porn on Kindle, and I am glad it exists.
Otherwise I would never have gone into a book-store and bought such a book. I'd never want to be caught reading it by strangers, or worse, the kids.
And since it's become so easy and private to get more such books, well... I have read quite a lot of them since I have the Kindle.
So if it's not the reason I bought it, it's like the poster above said:

Porn is certainly a passenger, but I think not the driver.

[speakingtohe]

Is this why people look kind of squirmy when I sat wotcher reading?

Helen

[Crowl]

The idea that any single genre could claim the credit for the success of the Kindle just seems to be delusion or self-promotion on the part of that author.

The overall package including competitive pricing and a wide variety of choice was what caused the success of the kindle even if the fans of some genres seem more willing than others to embrace ebooks. (scifi & fantasy seem like obvious ones that would be less prone to paper book fetishism than most.)

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Crowl

The idea that any single genre could claim the credit for the success of the Kindle just seems to be delusion or self-promotion on the part of that author.

The overall package including competitive pricing and a wide variety of choice was what caused the success of the kindle even if the fans of some genres seem more willing than others to embrace ebooks. (scifi & fantasy seem like obvious ones that would be less prone to paper book fetishism than most.)

I think the advertising campaign for the kindle 3 and the pretty good availability and customer service were the main factors. The wide choice is what kept them going.

I agree with you though. Very few people saw an ereader and their first thought was gee, I can read porn on the bus with that. In fact I think that embarrassment at reading soft porn at least is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. A surprising number of people brag about it.

Helen