Follow-Up Email from Amazon Regarding My Book's Ban

So almost ten hours after sending the email to Amazon, I FINALLY heard back from them.

Hello,

We’re contacting you regarding the following book(s) that you submitted for sale in our Kindle Store:

Bound to Accept by Campbell, Nenia (AUTHOR)

During our review process, we found that your book’s content is in violation of our content guidelines. As a result, we will not be offering this book for sale. If additional submissions are identified with similar content that violates our guidelines, your account may be terminated or you may lose access to optional KDP services.

Our content guidelines are published on the Kindle Direct Publishing website. To learn more, please see: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishin...


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Just for the record, this is the list of Content Guidelines:


Content Guidelines

Your books and other content (such as book titles, cover art and product descriptions) must adhere to these content guidelines. We reserve the right to make judgments about whether content is appropriate and to choose not to offer it. We may also terminate your participation in the KDP program if you don't adhere to these content guidelines.

Pornography
We don't accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.

Offensive Content
What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect.

Illegal and Infringing Content
We take violations of laws and proprietary rights very seriously. It is your responsibility to ensure that your content doesn't violate laws or copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights. Just because content is freely available does not mean you are free to copy and sell it.

Public Domain and Other Non-Exclusive Content
Some types of content, such as public domain content, may be free to use by anyone, or may be licensed for use by more than one party. We will not accept content that is freely available on the web unless you are the copyright owner of that content. For example, if you received your book content from a source that allows you and others to re-distribute it, and the content is freely available on the web, we will not accept it for sale on the Kindle store. We do accept public domain content, however we may choose to not sell a public domain book if its content is undifferentiated or barely differentiated from one or more other books.

Poor Customer Experience
We don't accept books that provide a poor customer experience. Examples include poorly formatted books and books with misleading titles, cover art or product descriptions. We reserve the right to determine whether content provides a poor customer experience.


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Great. So not only was my book preemptively banned, potentially costing me hundreds of dollars in lost profits, they are now threatening to terminate my account if I don't adhere to these incredibly vague guidelines.

Dammit. I'm crying again. This is just too frustrating. :'(
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Published on August 14, 2014 22:49 Tags: author-post, banned-book, bound-to-accept, fml, rants
Comments Showing 1-50 of 53 (53 new)    post a comment »

message 1: by Deborah (new)

Deborah Markus Great. This sounds exactly like the old "I can't give a clear legal definition of porn, but I know it when I see it."

I'm so sorry. This is enraging.


message 2: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell I don't understand why abusive erotica is okay, but mine is not. I bet E.L. James doesn't receive threats from Amazon about banning her account. :|


message 3: by Deborah (new)

Deborah Markus Nenia wrote: "I don't understand why abusive erotica is okay, but mine is not. I bet E.L. James doesn't receive threats from Amazon about banning her account. :|"

Exactly! This is just ridiculous, and so frustrating!


message 4: by [deleted user] (new)

Nenia wrote: "I don't understand why abusive erotica is okay, but mine is not. I bet E.L. James doesn't receive threats from Amazon about banning her account. :|"

Because her erotica are so boring they are actually skimming through them while reviewing ;)


message 5: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell :'(

It's not like my books don't sell, either.


message 6: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Oana wrote: "Nenia wrote: "I don't understand why abusive erotica is okay, but mine is not. I bet E.L. James doesn't receive threats from Amazon about banning her account. :|"

Because her erotica are so boring..."


Hahahaha. That made me smile. :)

This is seriously bumming me out though.


message 7: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell I don't know if that would work though. If they review the content, they might scan the document for mentions of rape and knife play and things like that.


message 8: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell I definitely will try repackaging the book in the future but probably not now. I'm just too upset to do anything now. This has pretty much ruined my whole day.


message 9: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Me, too. :|


message 10: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell I guess the moral of this story is that I shouldn't post trigger warnings on my Amazon books.


message 11: by Sam (new)

Sam Personally, I would NOT put the specifics (knife-play, rape fantasy) in or anywhere on the Amazon page. I would put it on the Goodreads and Smaswords pages, but just use "BDSM" as a blanket warning on Amazon. Most of the erotica books I've seen do not include warnings that specific--dub-con/non-con is commonly used on GR, but I've never paid attention to whether or not it's on Amazon, because usually if I'm at Amazon it's because I've already done my research on GR.

I get that you want to be super considerate of trigger warnings and things, but I mean... it's BDSM erotica, the reader has to realize that's a pretty broad scope. I think a vague warning is enough--especially under the circumstances. I would at least leave off "rape." I'd bet a good chunk of change that warning is what got you blocked. It made the book come off as more "offensive" than I'm sure it is.

As for the warning, don't panic, this threat is not specific to you. That's the standard response. I looked in the content guidelines earlier after this happened and saw the same phrasing. Startled me too, and it was just on a page and not directed at me, lol.

This is major bullshit.


message 12: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Oh thank God. Okay, I was freaking out for a second because I was like, "I don't want to even TRY resubmitting the f***ing book if it means my account will be banned!"

I guess I'll have to try again. :|


message 13: by [deleted user] (new)

So let me get this straight. I realize this is two different media, but bear with me...

They allow graphically violent music that depicts rape, torture, killing, etc...

They allow books that say all homosexuals, Non-WASP persons, and drug addicts should be killed?

They allow all this, but a simple (no offense meant!) BDSM novella flies in the face of their TOS?

I have nothing. Just stunned and disgusted.


message 14: by Sam (new)

Sam Loki (of Smartassgard) wrote: "So let me get this straight. I realize this is two different media, but bear with me...

They allow graphically violent music that depicts rape, torture, killing, etc...

They allow books that say ..."


You're just not allowed to tell people those things are inside! That is paramount to evil in the eyes of Amazon, apparently.


message 15: by Nenia (last edited Aug 14, 2014 11:39PM) (new)

Nenia Campbell Don't forget the book about the guide that promotes pedophilia: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/40112145/ns...

That's apparently allowed too.


Never mind, apparently they pulled a 180 on that too.

Well, that's something.


message 16: by Bern (last edited Aug 14, 2014 11:42PM) (new)

Bern What? A Pedophile Guide is okay, but not a BDSM novel?

What?


Seriously Nenia, just slap on some vague "This book has some slightly hardcore shit" warning on the blurb and resend it, they can't possibly not publish it if they refuse to censure a book about helping pedophiles.

Disgusting.


Well, still.


message 17: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell No, nononono.



I guess they were defending him but they changed their minds.

Probably because of this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

But yeah, I guess I should probably just leave my warnings as vague as the ToS.


message 18: by Sam (new)

Sam Nenia wrote: "No, nononono.



I guess they were defending him but they changed their minds.

Probably because of this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic......"


Ugh, good. That was freaking disgusting.

Yes, I think vague warnings are your friend. They aren't going to read your whole book, they don't have that kind of time, they're clearly just going by blurbs, titles, and covers, and there's nothing objectionable about your cover or title.


message 19: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Actually, I may have to swap Lou's cover out for the zipper one. I have reason to believe that handcuffed cover models aren't allowed.


message 20: by Bern (new)

Bern But 50SoG has handcuffs on the cover. What even?


message 21: by Sam (last edited Aug 14, 2014 11:56PM) (new)

Sam Really? I feel like I can think of about 5 other books that have that, lol. But that's probably a good idea. Best to cover all the bases. Good thing you had a back-up this time!

Oh, no...that's...all of the cuffs.


message 22: by Sam (new)

Sam Her Master's Courtesan (Masters, #1) by Lily White I thought of this one first, but those are feet cuffs!


message 23: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell That book was also banned from Amazon .


message 24: by Sam (new)

Sam Oh, was it really? I didn't know that!


message 25: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Yup.

Okay, I just repackaged the book, changed the cover, and made some changes. Hopefully Amazon will accept the new cover, summary, and content.


message 26: by Sam (last edited Aug 15, 2014 12:39AM) (new)

Sam *Crosses fingers*

If you buy a book but don't read it right away, and then it ends up banned, it doesn't vanish from your Kindle or anything, does it?


message 27: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell No, I don't believe it does. >_>

Some of my readers still have Terrorscape on their Kindles, I believe.

If this works, I'll probably repackage Terrorscape, too. :|


message 28: by Derrolyn (new)

Derrolyn Anderson This is horrifying and chilling, confirming all of my worst fears. I'm so, so sorry, because it's not right, it's not fair, and you don't deserve to be singled out like this.

I wish I knew how to "fix" it. I'm sad too :(


message 29: by Sam (new)

Sam Why not? It's stupid that people can't buy it there but you can buy the first two books.

Sigh.

My only concern is sometimes my daughter gets her hand on my Kindle and deregisters it, and when I re-register it has to reload all of my books. I don't know if they would reload a book they banned or not...


message 30: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Well, there isn't much I can do except yield to their demands. It really sucks, but like I said, this is my livelihood, and I can't really flip them the bird.

The only reason I posted anything is because about 200+ people had this marked as to-read, and a whole bunch of them were asking me why it wasn't on Amazon. So I'm being open about the process. If they accept my changes and allow me to sell the repackaged version, I will post a yay! status update.


message 31: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Sam wrote: "Why not? It's stupid that people can't buy it there but you can buy the first two books.

Sigh.

My only concern is sometimes my daughter gets her hand on my Kindle and deregisters it, and when I ..."


See, rather than punishing authors, parents should stop giving their kids Kindles and iPads as presents. Kids shouldn't be on the internet. I didn't get a computer until I was 14. I had to use my parents' and only for school work or pre-approved games that I could play for a few hours at a time.


message 32: by Sam (new)

Sam I know, it really does suck. My natural response is a big "screw you guys!" but... not possible, since they have the indie market cornered. :\


message 33: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Sam wrote: "I know, it really does suck. My natural response is a big "screw you guys!" but... not possible, since they have the indie market cornered. :\"

Yeah. *sigh*

One of these days, I'm going to write the Queen Mother of Twisted books, and sell it exclusively through Smashwords. Maybe when I am Rich and Famous and people will actually go there to buy it lololol.


message 34: by Sam (last edited Aug 15, 2014 12:49AM) (new)

Sam Nenia wrote: "Sam wrote: "Why not? It's stupid that people can't buy it there but you can buy the first two books.

Sigh.

My only concern is sometimes my daughter gets her hand on my Kindle and deregisters it,..."


Even giving their kids these things is no excuse--I highly doubt the kids are able to purchase whatever they want on mommy's credit card. There are parent controls and passwords and things that you set up so children CAN'T buy things when they're on these devices. I honestly don't think it has anything to do with kids, I think they just have a stick up their ass for some reason and they know they can push indies around, because where the hell else are we going to go?


message 35: by Sam (new)

Sam Nenia wrote: "Sam wrote: "I know, it really does suck. My natural response is a big "screw you guys!" but... not possible, since they have the indie market cornered. :\"

Yeah. *sigh*

One of these days, I'm goi..."


True story. Someday I'm going to open an ebook store that rivals Amazon and let people publish whatever warning labels they want, lol


message 36: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Ooh ooh ooh!




message 37: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Hahahaha srsly.


message 38: by Sam (new)

Sam Nenia wrote: "Ooh ooh ooh!

"


Hahaha, right? LET'S DO THIS THING!! Now we just need to find a computer genius-nerd... ;)


message 39: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Emily May knows one! Her computer genius-nerd helped her create leafmarks.

We could call this one applescratch! LOL


message 40: by Sam (new)

Sam Haha, I dig it. Think of all the adorable logos we could have. ;)


message 41: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Or, ooh! badapples! And show apples with whips and chains and kinky toys!


message 42: by Sam (new)

Sam Totally! Plus badapples has wicked, evil-queen-like symbolism!


message 43: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Heeheehee!


message 44: by Alex (new)

Alex Sorry to hear that! There are a lot of filthy books published on Amazon and they found yours to ban? Morons...


message 45: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Alex wrote: "Sorry to hear that! There are a lot of filthy books published on Amazon and they found yours to ban? Morons..."

Yeah. This really put a damper on my day!

However, so many awesome people popped out of the woodwork to give me words of support and spread the word and that was really amazing.

So I took their advice and made some changes and resubmitted the book to Amazon. Hopefully they will publish it. If not, I will know that my friends and I did everything we could, and try not to take it too personal.

<3


TL *Humaning the Best She Can* So sorry Nenia *hugs* good luck with the re-submission


message 47: by [deleted user] (new)

If it works, you will let us know, yeah? Otherwise, Smashwords be a' callin' me name. ;)


message 48: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell Tim wrote: "I hope everything works out, Nenia! A pox on Amazon's rotten nanny "guidelines"!"

Thanks, Tim. :)


message 49: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell вιвℓισρнιℓια {кιηgѕℓєу & ѕøяєη ƒσяєνєя} wrote: "Freakin' unbelievable, they'll be telling us what we can or can't read from the selection they picked out!!! It's pathetic, stay strong, hope it all works out for you."

I agree! I would much rather read erotica than violence. Kinkiness > cruelty.


message 50: by Nenia (new)

Nenia Campbell TL wrote: "So sorry Nenia *hugs* good luck with the re-submission"

Thanks, TL! <3


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