Indie Books Being Removed From Various Bookstores: Rights and Censorship

Yesterday morning I logged into Facebook to see a few blog posts and articles about indie books being taken down off the shelves of various online bookstores. The story is that they are taking down “Questionable” books for review and removing any books that actually have the type of content they want removed.

Here is where the lines begin to blur… but, from what I have read, they are removing content that has rape, child pornography, incest, bestiality, and abusive sexual content deemed to graphic.

That being said, a lot of books are being removed which do not have any of this and some which don’t have any sex at all. I know that so far WH Smith who partners with Kobo has shut down their website and left a rather nasty message on their holding page. While I have an opinion about all this that I will get to in a moment, I feel that message was a little over the top and could have been handled differently. I am going to copy paste the message for when it is eventually removed, it will still be here.

A statement from WHSmith:

Last week we were made aware that a number of unacceptable titles were appearing on our website through the Kobo website that has an automated feed to ours. This is an industry wide issue impacting retailers that sell self published eBooks due to the explosion of self publishing, which in the main is good as it gives new authors the opportunity to get their content published. However we are disgusted by these particular titles, find this unacceptable and we in no way whatsoever condone them.

It is our policy not to feature titles like those highlighted and we have processes in place to screen them out. We offer over one million titles through our eBooks partner Kobo, many of which are self-published titles. Due to the massive amount of self publishing a number of these titles have got through the screening process.

We are taking immediate steps to have them all removed. While we are doing this we have decided to take our website off-line to best protect our customers and the public. Our website will become live again once all self published eBooks have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available. When our website goes back online it will not display any self published material until we are completely confident that inappropriate books can never be shown again.

We sincerely apologise for any offence caused.

In the mean time if you have any questions for our customer support team you can contact then here (customer.relations@whsmith.co.uk).

Smashwords spoke with Kobo and they have a pretty informational post. If you are an author and you have books through smashwords I recommend reading their post about it here. I am going to post a few links to a couple different sites about this and then I’ll get on with why I’m actually posting this.

BBC News / The Digital Reader / Mail Online / On The Media / The Guardian

Read up on all this if you want to, what I want to discuss is the censorship and violations of free speech.

I am concerned about how quickly all authors went into a panic and began storming the internet with claims that their freedom of speech is being violated and that they are being censored.

First off, remember that I am an author too and it could be me having these issues as well. In reality, we don’t know that I’m not publishing erotica under a pen name. (Hmmm, something to think about, eh)

So anyhow, here are my thoughts.

We are indie authors, yes? The very definition of indie author is that we are independent and can write whatever we want, thus not being censored. However, simply because we are able to write something and post it on our blogs or sell it from our websites does not mean that every online bookstore HAS to sell our books. In fact, most of them have content guidelines or terms and conditions which we agree to when we publish that state we agree we are not publishing that type of content.

Also, these online bookstores could have lawsuits filed against them for distributing things like child porn. Their removal of the books is a course of action that I can’t disagree with. Those who have had books removed by mistake or because they were questionable will have them put back up, I’m sure of it. One of my FB friends told me hers was back up within two hours.

The online bookstores need to do this. You have to understand that. It is not simply the erotica they are after, it is the harder stuff. I do, however think that traditionally published books should be subject to the same review process the indie authors seem to be going through. Tons of traditionally published books have questionable sex and even incest. V.C. Andrews books were one of my favorites when I was younger and they are full of incest.

There are going to be blurred lines when it comes to some books, yes. There are going to be issues with innocent books getting removed because of key wording or something of the like and it is also going to be a long process.

I think this was the right course of action for the bookstores to take because they are protecting themselves and the hundreds of thousands of other indie authors out there who are publishing books without “questionable” content.

Believe me, these bookstores know just as we do how well romance and erotica do in the market. They know they are making a freaking bundle off of us and they are going to do everything in their power to keep those markets going. Sex sells, money rules and erotica is a huge factor in that.

But the questionable content is something I can honestly say that I don’t mind them removing. I don’t want to accidentally pick up a book with some guy raping a child or something like that.

I am the wife of a soldier who was active duty for 8 years, National Guard for 6. He is now a police officer. I am a patriot through and through, so if there is one thing that I support it is our constitution and our people. YOU … the people, are who we have sacrificed for and I don’t believe in censorship either. So, please don’t think that is what I support, because it’s not … at all.

I get it … really I do. I get the anger and the panic. But, it is the bookstores decision on if they choose to sell our books. They are protecting themselves, which has to come first in order to protect the authors who are following the rules. They aren’t perfect either, they make mistakes … like taking down innocent books. But these books which are innocent and being removed, I am positive will be restored.

Calm down, slow your roll, and realize what they must be going through as well.