Amazon Rejection

[R. Richard]

I submitted a story, Nudist Queen, to Amazon, it was accepted and became one of my best sellers. The plot of the story is that hot looking Nanci wants to be a big star. She treats her boyfriend like shit and goes off to win a nudist beauty contest, then goes Hollywood. Meanwhile, the 'girl next door' takes advantage of Nanci's public exhibitionist work to move in on Nanci's boyfriend, with her own private exhibitionist work, plus sex.
The story contains no incest, no rape, no married woman runs wild. However, after it sold quite a few copies, Amazon banned it and they won't tell me why they did so.
Nudist Queen is now published in Smashwords.
Maybe it's a case of Amazon not liking money? Whaddaya think?

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I like the idea of the girl next door taking advantage of the whole situation... That's an interesting little plot turn.

Who knows what Amazon thinks or does? This modern-era thing about censoring - or 'pre-censoring' if I can put it that way - what writers write or want to write, is the beginning of the end of a phase of advanced culture and knowledgeable broader society. There is no such thing as a moral high ground when it comes to being a publisher - there is only a delineation to do with written expression itself; but not the actual content/idea content.

I fully accept and understand limitations to do with things like 'child age' porn and bestiality because they have to do with disallowing a general category of genre to develop gratuitously (which is not the same as blocking genuine ideas via censorship). These things - child porn and bestiality and the promoting of rape violence - are not 'genuine' ideas; they are bad ideas based on unbalanced removal of the rights of people, children, animals, women...

Amazon, like most contemporary commercial venues, is regressive although it wants to be the future. The modern era is absolutely riddled with a conservative mentality that is a sickness killing itself without comprehending or admitting that is indeed a failing set of ideas. This conservatism is a parasite mentality that takes over total control and thus appears to be fully successful, just like all parasites - right before it kills the organism and then dies itself.

 

[MatthewVett]

They must have their reasons. It sounds like you've already inquired about it, and you're still selling it somewhere else, so there's not really anything more to do. There are plenty of reasons not to want to sell something.

 

[sr71plt]

Someone must have complained and Amazon knee jerk withdrew it. I don't think Amazon has a lot of time for the indie erotica it receives for publishing and, although they enjoy the profit from it, they don't side with it when there's a complaint. I'll bet if you repackage it and resubmit it will fly through to the distribution list and sell well there for a couple of more years.

 

[R. Richard]

Someone must have complained and Amazon knee jerk withdrew it. I don't think Amazon has a lot of time for the indie erotica it receives for publishing and, although they enjoy the profit from it, they don't side with it when there's a complaint. I'll bet if you repackage it and resubmit it will fly through to the distribution list and sell well there for a couple of more years.

I don't want to repackage the story and then have some people who bought the original to find that they bought a slight revision. I do want to find out how the story sells in Smashwords.
I publish stories in Smashwords and in Amazon, but never in both. (Smashwords has been talking about hooking up with Amazon, but it's not likely to happen.)

 

[sr71plt]

I don't want to repackage the story and then have some people who bought the original to find that they bought a slight revision. I do want to find out how the story sells in Smashwords.
I publish stories in Smashwords and in Amazon, but never in both. (Smashwords has been talking about hooking up with Amazon, but it's not likely to happen.)

One of my publishers already is repackaging and reselling three-year-old books on the theory (which has held out so far) that there's a whole new readership/buying base in the e-book field after three years (mainstream publishers reissue as well). I have thus far expanded everything reissued and it's all clearly marked in the blurbs as an expanded reissue. They've sold just as well the second time around as the first. This isn't a "new" thing in the world of publishing.

And I see no payoff in not distributing the same work to as many points of sale as you can. This again is not a "new" concept in the world of publishing.

 

[NaokoSmith]

There have been a lot of complaints here, on FB and elsewhere on the net about Amazon being less than helpful, and sometimes actively blocking, Indie writing.

Smashwords published for Kindle in the past and then I think Amazon decided to go it alone. You can download from Smash a document that you can read in Kindle, I think, although they don't have a direct hookup any more.

I think Amazon just care about making MEGA mega bucks for themselves, while Smash is geared to the Indie writer, and here is best set up for new work.

Good luck selling this latest book on Smash!

 

[lovecraft68]

My opinion and I stress its an opinion is that Smashwords does not want to publish with kindle.

Mark Coker (like many) is not a fan of amazon and its games and he is profiting by situations just like Richards.

Many indy erotica authors are sliding over to SW so why should he "feed" amazon.

SW explanation is he can't get "integrated" with amazon. Please, SW is pretty damn tech savvy and kindle is easy to upload books to.

he is simply sitting there with open arms waiting for the flood of amazon only authors to smarten up and come his way.

As to the issue, someone probably complained and amazon never sides with erotica. They also obviously could care less about money because their games with indy erotica is easily costing them 100K plus a month.

Remember, here all we think about on amazon is kindle, but grand scheme of things Amazon is filthy rich without kindle, never mind simply without erotica.

 

[KlaytonFrost]

The whims of Amazon are many and varied. Seriously though, that company does some scary stuff when it comes to how they treat their authors (not to mention their customers). If you so much as look at Amazon the wrong way they can delete your entire book collection, or pre-ban you without expanation or reason. Avoid them. You are MUCH better off with Smashwords.

 

[MaxSebastian]

I think Selena Kitt had some issues with certain words being used in her erotic books, which led to them being banned by Amazon - some obvious ones, but also the word "celebrity", strangely enough.

Maybe Amazon is so paranoid about being sued by some celebrity for being featured in erotic fanfic dressed up as indie erotica that it has banned anything similar to "celebrity". If your Nudist Queen goes off to Hollywood and becomes a star... well, perhaps that triggered something in fascist world.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Here is Selena Kitt's latest blogpost on the problematic ways in which Amazon treats erotica writers.

 

[lovecraft68]

I really don't understand why amazon just doesn't come out and say they just don't want to deal with erotica anymore.

I would say they would be worried about the backlash, but they're getting it anyway by being sleazy and underhanded.

as for Selena's blog and her "pornapacolypse" thread her challenge to Bezos that "I" made you-and I know she means all erotica authors not just her-is not going to go anywhere.

amazon is worth billions without the kindle store, Bezos will do what he is doing, he is not going to be "challenged"

and in her post and posts from others around the net it keeps coming back to "but amazon is losing money, or when he wakes up and sees how much money he is losing...."

Okay, it is pretty damn naive to think Bezos did this with no forethought. I am sure whatever inspired him to do this(pressure from the big six not wanting their precious Stephen King books next to "taking mommy's ass is my guess) he did not decide on a whim.

I am more than certain he got his people together and someone told him what Selena is posting; that erotica is a big chunk of the kindle store that they make x-amount on it a year. If he does this then they lose X and....

he did it anyway. To think this was an uniformed decision made on a whim by one person is beyond having your head stuck in the sand.

maybe amazon will come back around, but my gut says no. In the meantime however, the only people really crushed are the people only on amazon.

My sales on every outlet-aside from amazon-have doubled to tripled in the last 3-4months. You're not losing sales, they are just being spread around.

 

[KlaytonFrost]

They have a pretty terrible record all around, not just with erotica. I would hope that some of the issues will sort themselves out as eBooks become more and more the norm.

 

[lovecraft68]

They have a pretty terrible record all around, not just with erotica. I would hope that some of the issues will sort themselves out as eBooks become more and more the norm.

Right now there are at least 3 change.org petitions out against amazon, one for refunds, there's the hue and cry over them not paying taxes in the UK and another I can't recall.

Personally I think the kindle store is now their red headed step child. They sell kindles at a loss because the money is made on the books and now they are deliberately slicing their profit.

They don't care.

they are bowing to the big six because they have been sued multiple times and even though they win those battles are not cheap. Bezos is simply taking money away from blue collar people who use their royalties to put clothes on their kids backs and handing it to The publishers of King and Rice and Clancy, because you know, they need the money.

For the record? What I just said about taking money from people's families? That, not "I made you" is the angle of attack that would draw the most ire from the general public.