BOUND TO ACCEPT Is BANNED from AMAZON?!?!?!?!?!
Well, my new BDSM romance that was scheduled to be released today won't be sold through Amazon. They banned it.
I cannot believe this is happening.
Due to these unforeseen circumstances, the only place you will be able to buy my book is from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
I cannot believe this is happening.
Due to these unforeseen circumstances, the only place you will be able to buy my book is from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
♫✯Aria the Parawhore✯♫ *Emmi*∞~here's to never growing up wrote: "Nenia wrote: "♫✯Aria the Parawhore✯♫ *Emmi*∞~here's to never growing up wrote: "I am so sorry! That's just horrible. They didn't even have the courtesy to email!"An email would have been nice. :(..."
Thanks for the hugs, Aria. <3
Deborah wrote: "Holy carp! I'm so sorry!"Thanks, Deborah. <3
Yeah... It really sucks. So if you can spread the word in any way, please do. ^_^
I'm so sorry, Nenia :( *hugs* Hope they'll take another look at your book soon <3
Nenia wrote: "I just got an email from them."...AND???
They referred me to vague content guidelines and threatened to delete my account.https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Did they put it back to draft? Or did you ask them to? I don't know how that works.
Nope! It's still blocked. I think I'll have to resubmit the whole thing.
Damn their faces. This is super annoying. Hopefully very soon this will all be but an aggravating memory and the book will be widely available for all to buy!
I'm still freaking out over the banning message. I really don't want my account to be banned!
Use it as marketing with a big red BANNED FROM AMAZON! That's what my other friends do lol
I know, that freaked me out, too. They need to be more informative about this shit, not vague, impersonal messages like that! I mean, one would assume you would get a number of CLEAR warnings where you know what rule you broke and that it's pissed them off...but one would ALSO assume they would give you "about what you think we would find offensive" because CLEARLY I do not find the same things offensive as Amazon. I find the fact that they'll carry trad-pubbed books about pedophilia, for fuck's sake but not indies for "because reasons" reasons.
I mean....HELLO!
I found one of the threads I read before, and this nugget is worth looking at:"titles and descriptions cant have anything adult about them."
I've personally already started worrying about that with my dark romance one I was telling you about. I wanted to warn about the age difference, but I'm afraid that an age gap warning would flag me for pedophilia or some bullshit, so instead, I'm just working the ages into the blurb so people know up-front the ages, but I'M not warning them in any way that stands out. Screw that. It's really stupid that things have to be done that way, but....
"titles and descriptions can't have anything adult about them."LOL! Bullshit! They allow a book called "Double Stuffed by the Dragons": http://www.amazon.com/Stuffed-Dragons...
It's PNR shape-shifter porn involving double penetration.
Future Slayer Girl (aka: kitten) wrote: "Use it as marketing with a big red BANNED FROM AMAZON! That's what my other friends do lol"LOL!!!! Maybe I should.
I'm also trying to redirect people to Smashwords. I'm really quite happy with the way they allow people to sell pretty much whatever. And they respond pretty quickly to issues.
Also, regarding the pedophile book, I did some research into it and the book WAS eventually pulled. Probably because of this:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...
He's creepy looking, ne?
Nenia wrote: ""titles and descriptions can't have anything adult about them."LOL! Bullshit! They allow a book called "Double Stuffed by the Dragons": http://www.amazon.com/Stuffed-Dragons......"
Yeah, weirdly they don't seem to care about dino/monster/insect porn... I think Amazon would be interesting to converse with while drunk. They are clearly some perverse mofos, lol.
YES, that guy is so super creepy. WTF was he even thinking?
Did Terrorscape have the trigger warning when it was on Amazon?
Sam wrote: "Nenia wrote: ""titles and descriptions can't have anything adult about them."LOL! Bullshit! They allow a book called "Double Stuffed by the Dragons": http://www.amazon.com/Stuffed-Dragons......"
You know, people like that have to be pretty seriously mentally ill to think that that is okay. I'm glad he was arrested, because it's sick that he was proud about that. Really, really sick.
Astoria wrote: "This is sad as heck. I don't read books like 'Bound to Accept', but it's so sad that they banned it from publication. And seeing that they've allowed books like 'Double Stuffed...', I don't underst..."Probably the list of trigger warnings. I think Sam and the others are right. They're probably making my books look worse than they really are.
Sam wrote: "Did Terrorscape have the trigger warning when it was on Amazon?"Yes, it did. Because of the rape. I am sensing a pattern here.
But TANTALIZED also has a list of trigger warnings and it's even more offensive than BtA and TS in my opinion, and it wasn't banned.
"You should email A-zon and notify them that you will change/drop books with this content, and ask them to unblock the account so you can do so. Look at all your books/blurbs, and make sure you don't have:dubious consent/pseudo rape (and absolutely no real rape!)
bestiality
incest (and even pseudo incest is tricky, make sure your descriptions are clear)
scat
Make sure the titles don't have trigger words (I can't say for sure what they are, but it's been mentioned around the web), and that the people on the covers aren't too nude. Yes, that's rather subjective, but the A is getting picky." -Here.
And yes, that's super disgusting. I understand them being like, "NO!" with something like that, but that's because those are children. Not adults.
I'm an adult; I don't need Amazon to decide for me not to let people sell books ABOUT adults in sexual situations, because I'm perfectly capable of deciding whether or not to buy those things myself. I don't need or want the morality police to decide these things for me. Especially in a world where Fifty Shades of Terrible Writing is not only available, but frequently in their top five bestsellers. Come on. Give up the pretense.
Nenia wrote: "Sam wrote: "Did Terrorscape have the trigger warning when it was on Amazon?"Yes, it did. Because of the rape. I am sensing a pattern here.
But TANTALIZED also has a list of trigger warnings and ..."
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they have a no-tolerance policy for rape warnings. You'll have to be crafty and work around it. For the BDSM one you probably don't have to change it to say more than BDSM, but more... let people figure out, given the situation, that there may be some unsavory activity going on.
EDIT: And Tantalized has no rape warning. Double checked that as soon as I saw this one had been banned.
Ahh ok. So I guess what I'll do is remove the rape fantasy warning because there's another book about rape fantasy that IS on Amazon and she doesn't mention it in the summary (just checked).
This is ridiculous. Their guidelines are really worrisome.
There is a whole....I wanna say trilogy? of books on Amazon by one author about rape fantasy, but she changed the titles on Amazon and substituted it with some super-transparent a---Oh, never mind, they got her.
the second one was changed to Rough Game but they caught that one, too.
Okay guys, I just made a whole bunch of changes to the packaging of the book. I am submitting it to Amazon now! Hopefully they will accept the changes. If they do, it should be available for purchase @ 1:00 P.M. PST.
Sam wrote: "There is a whole....I wanna say trilogy? of books on Amazon by one author about rape, but she changed the titles on Amazon and substituted it with some super-transparent a---Oh, never mind, they go..."Whaaaaaaat?
I am uncomfortable with Amazon banning books because those books contain rape scenes. Even less comfortable with them banning books because the book includes a rape FANTASY.
Tiger wrote: "I am uncomfortable with Amazon banning books because those books contain rape scenes. Even less comfortable with them banning books because the book includes a rape FANTASY."I think this lends credence to the theory that they have bots that selectively target books that have the word 'rape' in the summary.
Although maybe not. Because I just checked amazon and another book that deals with rape fantasy, Willing Victim, isn't on there.
IT WAS TOTALLY ON THERE A FEW WEEKS AGO!!!!!
So I guess I wasn't the only one who got my book removed for this reason.
I think they're in the process of wiping them all, and they just haven't gotten to everyone yet.
Tiger wrote: "I am uncomfortable with Amazon banning books because those books contain rape scenes. Even less comfortable with them banning books because the book includes a rape FANTASY."And, AGREE. We don't need Amazon policing what fantasies people are allowed to have, too.
Now I'm even more concerned. I hope submitting my draft wasn't a mistake!
It's ridiculous. Regardless of whether it's offensive to others, it should be allowed to remain. Hell in my perfect world they'd ban Janice Raymond books but hey, I don't get to make that call and for good reason. Censorship isn't cool.
Nenia wrote: "Now I'm even more concerned. I hope submitting my draft wasn't a mistake!"You removed all mention of the "r-word" right? In the blurb, I mean.
There is such a HUGE market for erotica. I don't really understand why they aren't covering all their bases. They're causing a lot of people to shop elsewhere. Smashwords is doing pretty fine by the look of things.
Sam wrote: "Nenia wrote: "Now I'm even more concerned. I hope submitting my draft wasn't a mistake!"You removed all mention of the "r-word" right? In the blurb, I mean."
Yes. I sure did! Not making that mistake ever again! No suh!
Nenia wrote: "There is such a HUGE market for erotica. I don't really understand why they aren't covering all their bases. They're causing a lot of people to shop elsewhere. Smashwords is doing pretty fine by th..."I don't either! They're going to push more people to Smashwords, honestly. If there's a market for it, leave it, don't get all Leave it to Beaver on us.
Nenia wrote: "Sam wrote: "Nenia wrote: "Now I'm even more concerned. I hope submitting my draft wasn't a mistake!"You removed all mention of the "r-word" right? In the blurb, I mean."
Yes. I sure did! Not mak..."
Good. Hopefully they'll calm down now.
LOL. Was that supposed to sound sexual on purpose?
Hahahaha, no, but I've always walked right into innuendo. I think my brain has more intention than I realize.
Or you've spent too much time talking to meeeee. ;)
Nenia wrote: "Future Slayer Girl (aka: kitten) wrote: "Use it as marketing with a big red BANNED FROM AMAZON! That's what my other friends do lol"LOL!!!! Maybe I should.
I'm also trying to redirect people to ..."
I shared it in a group on Facebook that loves banned books and dark books. And shared the smashwords link the group is 800 people strong. :-)
Future Slayer Girl (aka: kitten) wrote: "Nenia wrote: "Future Slayer Girl (aka: kitten) wrote: "Use it as marketing with a big red BANNED FROM AMAZON! That's what my other friends do lol"LOL!!!! Maybe I should.
I'm also trying to redir..."
Thank you so much, kitten! That helps so much! <3
I just resubmitted a repackaged version to Amazon, so we'll have to see if they approve it this time around.
Haha, when I was younger I was painfully shy, and when I got my first job, I worked with a bunch of crass people who had a blast laughing at me because I constantly said things with sexual double-meanings, and it didn't occur to me until they were teasing me for it. After doing that for a while, you learn to get over the shyness, lol. It's a worthwhile method!
Sam wrote: "Haha, when I was younger I was painfully shy, and when I got my first job, I worked with a bunch of crass people who had a blast laughing at me because I constantly said things with sexual double-m..."OMG I WAS THE SAME WAY.
And now I am a total pervert.
Nenia wrote: "Sam wrote: "Haha, when I was younger I was painfully shy, and when I got my first job, I worked with a bunch of crass people who had a blast laughing at me because I constantly said things with sex..."Yay! Freakily alike again, lol.
This is the second book of mine that they've banned.
The sad thing is that until that happened, I had always really admired their customer service and had never had a reason to complain. Not anymore. :|