Amazon, New Books, and Updates

Dear Readers,

Every time I post to this blog I feel as if it’s been way too long (and it usually has) but there has been an unusual amount of activity in my author life over the last few weeks, and I wanted to keep you up to date.

Generational Sins Removed from Amazon

As many of you may know, Amazon and a couple of other large e-book retailers have been cracking down on “inappropriate” books written by self-published authors. They’ve been removing books by the thousands from their websites with little or no explanation to the authors. They site their rather vague content guidelines and have made statements that erotica, violence, incest, and underage characters won’t be tolerated. I’ve included a couple of links to articles about the whole affair below for anyone who wants to continue reading about it, but that’s the general news story.

Generational Sins has been removed from Amazon as one of these books. So if you’re looking for it, please purchase directly from my website. I feel that authors who choose to self-publish, rather than using a publishing house, are being unfairly targeted in this pursuit, but I’m undecided on how to respond. On one hand, I know for a fact that my book is no more violent than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and no more sexual in nature than Sleeping Beauty Trilogy, but I can respect Amazon’s right to not represent books that they can’t support for moral reasons. I just think they need to do it fairly. If it’s their policy to not publish erotica, than they need to remove it all, and forfeit the reseller fees from the millions of romance novels with explicit content that they sell. I’d also like to note for the record, that Amazon had no problem with Generational Sins when it was new and selling a lot of copies. They seemed to overlook the inappropriate nature of my writing when it was making them more than $2000 a month.

So, for now I’ve decided to leave it alone. I’m not going to resubmit Generational Sins for publication on Amazon, but it’s still accessible from my own site, and I am considering trying to work with a traditional publisher for that whole trilogy (which is a difficult sell for a previously published work) so I’ll keep you up to date if anything changes on that front.

You can read more about the Amazon situation here:

BBC.CO.UK

The Digital Reader

Intergalactic Gold, Coming Soon

In happier news, I finally finished the most recent book I’ve been working on! I’m still going through editing, and I’m shopping it out to publishers this week, but with a little luck and a good edit or two, we’ll have a release date soon.

Here’s the short synopsis to get you excited:

Janna Barker dreamed of an Olympic gold medal from the first time she laced up her ice skates as a little girl, but being the best figure skater in the universe takes on a whole new meaning when earth is discovered by an alien race. Forced to skate on an inter-planetary circuit, Janna is faced with a set of skating rules that she doesn’t understand, an absence of good coaching, and a lack of funding.

Unable to pay for her skating on the intergalactic circuit, Janna’s overbearing stage-mother arranges for her to be moved to the icy planet, Kalter, and married to a wealthy alien man. Wanting nothing to do with the arrangement, but unwilling to forfeit her dream, Janna reluctantly agrees to visit the planet and meet the man. Overwhelmed by new customs, a wide variety of alien species, strange foods, and even a change in gravity, she isn’t ready to tackle a marriage proposal too, no matter how sweet or attractive the man may seem to be. Sure, she’s had fantasies, but there was never much time for dating on earth, and the idea of a relationship feels as alien as the new planet.

The men of Kalter are artic giants with hulking figures and intimidating muscles, but Marquise Hagan has a soft spot for the tiny earth girl who wants so badly to compete in the Intergalactic Olympics. When Janna arrives on his planet, his whole world is turned upside down by the slight figure skater. Wanting nothing more than a loving wife and a solid marriage, Hagan is determined to win her heart. Giving her the best equipment and coaching that money can buy is only the beginning of his efforts, but Hagan quickly learns that her true love is skating and everything else, including him, takes second place to her dream.

Thank you, as always, for being such loyal readers.

Until next time,

Samantha Blair