Inappropriate content in e-books will get your work pulled! Or “Why can’t I download my favorite underage, reptile porn author?”

 

No. No. No. It didn’t happen to me. I don’t write the stuff that’s getting yanked off e-bookshelves in e-bookstores. Again, it appears it’s the endeavors of self-published authors that are getting stepped on.

Yes, the topic of the books being pulled by Amazon, B&N, Waterstone, etc. cover incest, bestiality, rape and are gross but…to each his warped own. And these “books” are reader favorites because they are free or cheaply priced. Seems readers will try anything if it’s free-ninety-nine!

I could rant on and on about this tempest-in-a-teapot topic. Others are. Check out a couple articles in the online mags, The Kernel and The Digital Reader.

The subject matter of the “books" is off putting, but there is an audience out there for it. Someone is buying it. Therefore someone is writing it. It sucks that all erotica writers are being lumped together and their work is getting targeted because the admittedly outre subject matter of some is bringing the heat. If you are a writer of pretty tame erotica, your book can get removed from an e-bookstore because some inept gate guardian sees a flagged word in your title or book blurb. The rules for deletion make no sense. They are arbitrary.

Can we say Publisher Police?

I call it Publisher as hypocrite.

Why?

Because the same houses that are pulling the objectionable material are the same ones who green-lit the stuff for release.

What?

These books are formatted, and apparently not proofed, and released in house. And we all know that as long as you got the coin and think you are the next Hemingway, these places will accept your legible scribblings for release.

So how can these same houses now complain and act like the wronged virgin in a hot, mutually satisfying affair? They knew what they were publishing. I guess grabbing that dollar blinds one to what can circle back and bite one in the ass.

That goes for the “authors” too. They know their stuff is beyond the pale but refuse to see it. The lure of seeing your writing in print (E or otherwise) is too hard to pass up if the only thing keeping your voice from being heard is a charge to your credit card.

Hey, I’m not verklempt about this. All parties involved got what they wanted. I will say this: it might make publishers a tad more selective about what they select for publication. On the other hand, maybe not. Maybe if a fine was imposed they might sit up and take notice.

The other half of this equation is the starry-eyed “author.” I’ll leave it at, if you insist on writing crocodile porn and don’t mind losing revenue when it’s yanked, keep writing it.  In fact, get a bunch of the like-minded together and form your own house. Or keep writing and pause. Think really hard about putting out that loopy topic for all to see and that might possibly get pulled.