Too rude for iTunes? My bad...
So... three months ago I get this email:
But the book had been published by all the other major distributors without problem, so why were Apple being so picky? Particularly when you see some of the titles that do get through (and no, I'm not going to name examples: good luck to the authors who get past the cock-blockers, as erotica writers have taken to calling these censors; I'm not going to risk blowing the whistle on anyone).
I discussed it with other authors, and identified what appeared to be the problem (Apple are notoriously unhelpful in explaining their decisions), and then wrote back:
Objectionable Content
Books must not present excessively objectionable or crude content.
Billionaires' Sex Club
1: Captive at the Billionaires' Sex Club
When Kate Vale decided to spend the summer as a waitress at parties for the super-rich, she knew she would be moving in circles she'd never encountered before - a completely different world.
It turned out to be a world she had never even dreamed about.
A world of depravity, of pure unbridled lust; a world of control and submission, of pleasure and pain, a world where the boundaries between the pleasure and the pain blurred, shifted, vanished.
That summer, she discovered a new Kate, one she’d never even known existed, one that would have shocked her rigid if she’d been aware of it before those few weeks working in the Hamptons.
That summer, she discovered the Billionaires’ Sex Club.
An explicit story of bondage, dubious consent, multiple partners and more from the bestselling author of Bad Again and Taken at the Club.
Read an extract.
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/captive-at-the-billionaires-sex-club-polly-j-adams/1112708157Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00938RJ3Q/ref=as_li_tf_tl?tag=pollyjadams-20Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00938RJ3Q/ref=nosim?tag=pollyjadams-21Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Captive-at-Billionaires-Sex-Club/book-FNb7QQ-6Okmy-Dm11XJzlQ/page1.html
Apple has rejected Captive at the Billionaires' Sex Club for the following reason:This puzzled me. Yes, the book plays on fantasies of non-consensual sex. Hell, it has the word 'Captive' in the title, so it must be bad, right?
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Objectionable Content
Books must not present excessively objectionable or crude content.
But the book had been published by all the other major distributors without problem, so why were Apple being so picky? Particularly when you see some of the titles that do get through (and no, I'm not going to name examples: good luck to the authors who get past the cock-blockers, as erotica writers have taken to calling these censors; I'm not going to risk blowing the whistle on anyone).
I discussed it with other authors, and identified what appeared to be the problem (Apple are notoriously unhelpful in explaining their decisions), and then wrote back:
I've spoken to a few fellow writers about this and our guess is that the problem is that the book description and one of the SEO key phrases refers to 'dubious consent'. This is a standard phrase used in many BDSM books and certainly isn't used in any way to try to justify non-consensual activities; it's just part of the fantasy - the stories in these two books are no more non-consensual than books like the Fifty Shades series.Yes, the book is very explicit, but I really don't think it's the kind of thing that warrants censorship. That was January. It took them three months to reply with the following message:
Objectionable Content
Books must not present excessively objectionable or crude content.
Apple has rejected Captive at the Billionaires' Sex Club for the following reason:What was it I said about them being notoriously unhelpful in explaining their decisions? So here it is, banned by Apple, but available at all the other major ebook retailers:
--------------------
Objectionable Content
Books must not present excessively objectionable or crude content.
Billionaires' Sex Club
1: Captive at the Billionaires' Sex Club When Kate Vale decided to spend the summer as a waitress at parties for the super-rich, she knew she would be moving in circles she'd never encountered before - a completely different world.
It turned out to be a world she had never even dreamed about.
A world of depravity, of pure unbridled lust; a world of control and submission, of pleasure and pain, a world where the boundaries between the pleasure and the pain blurred, shifted, vanished.
That summer, she discovered a new Kate, one she’d never even known existed, one that would have shocked her rigid if she’d been aware of it before those few weeks working in the Hamptons.
That summer, she discovered the Billionaires’ Sex Club.
An explicit story of bondage, dubious consent, multiple partners and more from the bestselling author of Bad Again and Taken at the Club.
Read an extract.
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/captive-at-the-billionaires-sex-club-polly-j-adams/1112708157Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00938RJ3Q/ref=as_li_tf_tl?tag=pollyjadams-20Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00938RJ3Q/ref=nosim?tag=pollyjadams-21Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Captive-at-Billionaires-Sex-Club/book-FNb7QQ-6Okmy-Dm11XJzlQ/page1.html
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