My novel at Smashwords prohibited after 2+ years

[SandraMustard]

I don't know if some reader reported my novel or the review process for a recent revision to correct grammatical errors finally detected prohibited content. For those unfamiliar with my novel, I didn't have intercourse until I was 19, didn't have oral sex until I was 18, but I discussed masturbation and petting. That is the content they now site as the reason behind their demands to unpublish my novel. The objectionable material was present since first published in May of 2013.

I was going to step away from writing erotic stories a year ago. My sex life was involving surprising new exploration and I considered keeping it all private. It was a desire to continue to share my novel that brought me back here. I used my submitted stories and erotic forum posts to general view traffic of my novel. Without that end-purpose, there is no upside to spending the hours I need to generate new stories.

So, I am retiring from writing - again. This time, I'm leaving my stories up on this site and my username active. I might drop by occasionally but I will be spending my time in real life sexual fun with my husband and a growing circle of male and female partners.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

You can't retire from writing! There's no such thing!

You only think you can because you're pissed off at the moment. Fuck everyone else, SandraMustard.

Write.

Well, okay, if you simply HAVE TO DO SOME RESEARCH, then awright on that... : )

 

[legerdemer]

I don't know if some reader reported my novel or the review process for a recent revision to correct grammatical errors finally detected prohibited content. For those unfamiliar with my novel, I didn't have intercourse until I was 19, didn't have oral sex until I was 18, but I discussed masturbation and petting. That is the content they now site as the reason behind their demands to unpublish my novel. The objectionable material was present since first published in May of 2013.

I was going to step away from writing erotic stories a year ago. My sex life was involving surprising new exploration and I considered keeping it all private. It was a desire to continue to share my novel that brought me back here. I used my submitted stories and erotic forum posts to general view traffic of my novel. Without that end-purpose, there is no upside to spending the hours I need to generate new stories.

So, I am retiring from writing - again. This time, I'm leaving my stories up on this site and my username active. I might drop by occasionally but I will be spending my time in real life sexual fun with my husband and a growing circle of male and female partners.

That's simply absurd on the part of the publisher! It's a memoir - really? It's so not raunchy!

But I agree with DMMW's post.

Don't go, Sandra - your closet voyeurs will miss you! We want to imagine ourselves in your shoes, live vicariously through you!

 

[SandraMustard]

For what it's worth to other authors with ebooks, Smashwords has the same hard line no sex under 18 that Literotica has. I just flew under the radar for 2 years. I don't know if my novel was "reported"; I had a troll 1-bomb every story here a couple weeks ago. It was being reviewed for the premium catalogue for a recent revision upload. Strangely, it was the 17th revision, having passed review 16 times previously.

Either way, it's not a fight worth my time. I'm taking it as an omen that the time is right to give up writing. I did it for the experience, not to make a living. If was fun and taught me about a talent I didn't know I possessed. It also had extra meaning for us.

My writing started when my relationship with my husband and our marriage were on the rocks. They both have been saved in no small measure to understanding my husband better by writing about him. They both have been changed dramatically by our exposure to erotic alternatives that have breathed new life into our sex.

Despite the fun, attention, and benefits of writing, I want one less demand on my time. That's what the golden years are about.

 

[49greg]

I can understand needing to get rid of a demand on one's time, but I'll miss your comments.

I've often had thoughts that time spent on the forum reduces time and interest to write stories for Lit, but for me it is all about fun, and I hate to say "never".

I hope you enjoy your life and live without regrets.

 

[TxRad]

Do come back for the occasional visit. You will be missed.

 

[sr71plt]

This points once again to the irony that the mainstream is far more forgiving about underage sex than erotica is (for not the most reasonable of reasons, as writing or reading underage isn't illegal and sexual activity usually comes on gradually in RL rather than, boom, on your eighteenth birthday).

But decisions on what to do about writing are legitimately emotionally charged but are readily reversible when the mood changes. It's fine to just go with the mood of the moment and not to close out on future options.

In the meantime, the niche is open for an online story service that permits sex at a younger age but still hones to well-written stories with universal themes.

 

[R. Richard]

I hate like hell to endorse censorship. However, erotica publishers have to have credit card processing to survive. Under 18 sex, no credit card processing.

 

[SikFuk]

I hate like hell to endorse censorship. However, erotica publishers have to have credit card processing to survive. Under 18 sex, no credit card processing.

Even though Amazon has credit card processing and sells "Lolita".

Maybe it's time for the "free market" to offer a banking alternative to erotica publishers? Or if the free market fails, I wonder if the erotica publishers could form a co op and start their own bank/credit card processing system? It is odd that in a free country, artistic speech is regulated by giant corporations

 

[redzinger]

In the meantime, the niche is open for an online story service that permits sex at a younger age but still hones to well-written stories with universal themes.

It's there already. Have you never looked at Wattpad?

 

[sr71plt]

It's there already. Have you never looked at Wattpad?

Nope. Never heard of it. I'm admittedly stuck in a publishing phase that finally has given me just about everything I wanted (not being all that motivated by the need for money).

What does Wattpad do that's beyond the e-publishing system?

 

[redzinger]

Nope. Never heard of it. I'm admittedly stuck in a publishing phase that finally has given me just about everything I wanted (not being all that motivated by the need for money).

What does Wattpad do that's beyond the e-publishing system?

It's like Lit, but with a much-younger audience. I've mentioned this before but there are teens on there writing quite descriptively about having sex at <18. Some rapes too.

Admittedly, it's Canada not US-based . I think that may be how they get around the <18 thing, but one story I found contained a quite stomach-churning rape of a 15yo, in great detail. And thousands of effusive comments underneath. (I reported it.)


The quality is awful for 99% (so it doesn't meet that part of your criteria), but there are some really good, young authors on there with millions of followers. Millions. Some mainstream publishers have been getting their authors on there, I follow a couple of (older) published authors who publish their drafts.

As a new author there, it would take a lot of work to create a following though amongst the established crowd.

 

[sr71plt]

I think that may be how they get around the <18 thing,

The issue I've suggested is that there isn't an externally imposed "get around the <18 thing" problem. It's self-imposed by the story sites. It isn't "gotten" around in the mainstream, which has no trouble with distribution. The sites could have other barriers of acceptability on a story--not just that it has under-eighteen sex, but how much was pedophilia involved, for instance. The story sites are private businesses. They can set their own acceptance criteria and they can be just as arbitrary about that as they like. Lit. does, and the frequent yammering about that on the forum can be--and usually is--just ignored.

 

[49greg]

I'm sure that there are many places a writer could post underage stories, but I like Lit, and while most states in the US have ages of consent lower than 18, the owners here like 18.

Personally writing or reading about under aged people and sex kinda makes me a bit queazy, especially with under aged girls. Although I have to admit that when I was 14 or so I had a more than a few fantasy encounters with some older ladies. Oh, Miss O'Donnell, my seventh grade home room teacher ... sigh.

 

[R. Richard]

Even though Amazon has credit card processing and sells "Lolita".

Maybe it's time for the "free market" to offer a banking alternative to erotica publishers? Or if the free market fails, I wonder if the erotica publishers could form a co op and start their own bank/credit card processing system? It is odd that in a free country, artistic speech is regulated by giant corporations

Lolita and The Story of O are considered classics and apparently Amazon is wiling to gamble that the return rate will be very low.

Setting up a bank is a very expensive operation.

 

[TxRad]

Even though Amazon has credit card processing and sells "Lolita".

Maybe it's time for the "free market" to offer a banking alternative to erotica publishers? Or if the free market fails, I wonder if the erotica publishers could form a co op and start their own bank/credit card processing system? It is odd that in a free country, artistic speech is regulated by giant corporations

It's not the banks, Amazon or the Credit Card Companies but Paypal that has tried to block things in the past. They tried to blame it on the credit card companies but the credit card companies said it ain't us.

Not that Amazon isn't guiltless. The independent erotic writers are what built their business but now they want to go with the mainstream houses. They can't have it both ways in their own opinion so they set up roadblocks for independent authors and hoops for them to jump through.