Amazon and erotic literature

[TanyaDeVayer]

I'm sure somewhere this has been discussed already. If so maybe somebody give me the link to the thread. Thanks.

Anyway. Here is my question.

Since amazon has issues with erotic literature I'm wondering if there is (or will be) a platform with a solid reputation and reach where it makes sense to publish erotic stories. Obviously there is a market for erotic novels, so I'm wondering how erotic authors deal with that.
Currently my stories are avaible on the playstore, apple books and also on barnes&nobles, but I doubt this stores make a lot of sense for the genre.

What are your thoughts in that?

 

[lovecraft68]

Smashwords.

They are fully on board with erotica, even taboo/non con/Beastie(as long as you tag it correctly) and they are a lot bigger platform than people think, especially now with the D2D merge.

Mark Coker-the former owner of SW still runs that part of D2D as their top affiliate and site store-and he has proven time and again, he will not cater to censorship and supports only indy authors whereas Amazon tries to dungeon most erotic-and often other content as well-in favor of the big six publishers because they feel Stephen King needs the money more than you do, even though kindle was literally built ob indy authors, especially erotica at the start.

So check out Smashwords/D2D

If you have questions or need help, feel free to PM me.

 

[KeithD]

I have over 200 titles on Amazon. Only a few of the ones I've written have been taken down there for being too erotic.

 

[TanyaDeVayer]

I have over 200 titles on Amazon. Only a few of the ones I've written have been taken down there for being too erotic.

Most of my stories were taken down, but they where explicit.

 

[KeithD]

Most of my stories were taken down, but they where explicit.

Mine are quite explicit.

 

[Wifetheif]

I have like 80 books on Amazon. The only time I got in trouble was when I foolishly tried to sneak an explicit cover through.

 

[lovecraft68]

Amazon is just like lit. Their policies are vague and insanely inconsistently enforced. They have them to ban anything they feel like with no recourse. Incest is not allowed, yet right now you can find thousands of mommy daddy titles. If you post one and its banned you can yell all you want "what about the other 2000 just like it" and get nowhere.

Just like here.

 

[onehitwanda]

I'd say Amazon is worse than Lit. Lit's filtering is at least partly effective. Amazon is downing in rubbish.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'd say Amazon is worse than Lit. Lit's filtering is at least partly effective. Amazon is downing in rubbish.

No doubt, they claim they want no-fill in the blank-but somehow their 'screening' process doesn't catch any of it?

They have a history of allowing everything because it sells well, and they make bank. Then some moral majority twit whines their little boo boo bear saw something awful(because you know, parents shouldn't have to watch what their kids are looking at) and now there's a witch hunt. They ban countless books, tighten up, then a few months later, repeat.

They also don't care much at all about people stealing others work and selling it there.

 

[KeithD]

My publisher has been successful in getting some copied versions of my works taken down at Amazon. I think what's made that work, though, is that my publisher can point to Amazon versions of the works in my name published before the stolen works were. That's my answer to authors. Get it in the marketplace and earning whatever it's going to earn before the thieves can get to it.

 

[lc69hunter]

I saw what I thought to be a story that I had saved here on Lit as a favorite, but by a different author. I purchased just to see, and it was identical, word for word. The Lit author hasn't published or been active since 2017. The Amazon author also writes here, but in a totally different genre.
On Amazon, I looked but couldn't find anything else he may have lifted.

I have found that Amazon does have a decent amount of kink genres, depending upon what you are looking for. I have downloaded more than a few, in several different genres

 

[TanyaDeVayer]

Mine are quite explicit.

I don't get it. My stories were online for a couple month. Then all of a sudden most them vanished. Only 1 erotic title is still on amazon. Anyway. I always thought other titles which promise explicit material must be quite tame in reality. But if that isn't the case its pretty unfair.

 

[TanyaDeVayer]

And smashwords... I have to check this out.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

Smashwords.

They are fully on board with erotica, even taboo/non con/Beastie(as long as you tag it correctly) and they are a lot bigger platform than people think, especially now with the D2D merge.

Mark Coker-the former owner of SW still runs that part of D2D as their top affiliate and site store-and he has proven time and again, he will not cater to censorship and supports only indy authors whereas Amazon tries to dungeon most erotic-and often other content as well-in favor of the big six publishers because they feel Stephen King needs the money more than you do, even though kindle was literally built ob indy authors, especially erotica at the start.

So check out Smashwords/D2D

If you have questions or need help, feel free to PM me.

Stephen King really needs that money. Please give it to him. I worry he may go to sleep hungry.

 

[lovecraft68]

Stephen King really needs that money. Please give it to him. I worry he may go hungry at sleep.

Hopefully his son is helping to support him now that he's more successful.

 

[MrPixel]

I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but I will opine that the sudden Amazon problem may be their reaction to the Louisiana (and others?) laws about the availability of online porn “to minors”, and the oppressive registration requirements, etc. High-profile entities are going to be targets, so since erotica is certainly not Amazon’s main business, the cost of the loss of that business is pennies compared to the army of lawyers it will take to push back, or the expense of creating and administering a system to meet the state’s requirements.

Which is exactly what the laws were designed to do, send it all back underground.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but I will opine that the sudden Amazon problem may be their reaction to the Louisiana (and others?) laws about the availability of online porn “to minors”, and the oppressive registration requirements, etc. High-profile entities are going to be targets, so since erotica is certainly not Amazon’s main business, the cost of the loss of that business is pennies compared to the army of lawyers it will take to push back, or the expense of creating and administering a system to meet the state’s requirements.

Which is exactly what the laws were designed to do, send it all back underground.

They do a lot typing with those hooves in Louisiana don't they? Forcing women to have rape babies, but let's worry about erotic content.

All Amazon has to do is create an adult kindle store that requires a separate log in every time so kids can't see that content. E-bay has been doing this for years. There are count less adult auctions on there you can't see until you search for them then when you click you are asked to log in again before you can see them.

It's that simple, but Amazon doesn't want to bother, they'd rather let it be all over the site and make money then go on a banning spree when someone complains with their "how did that get there? Damn indy authors" routine.

 

[KeithD]

I don't get it. My stories were online for a couple month. Then all of a sudden most them vanished. Only 1 erotic title is still on amazon. Anyway. I always thought other titles which promise explicit material must be quite tame in reality. But if that isn't the case its pretty unfair.

I think Amazon is random/hit and miss in its responses to this.

 

[TanyaDeVayer]

Smashwords.

They are fully on board with erotica, even taboo/non con/Beastie(as long as you tag it correctly) and they are a lot bigger platform than people think, especially now with the D2D merge.

Mark Coker-the former owner of SW still runs that part of D2D as their top affiliate and site store-and he has proven time and again, he will not cater to censorship and supports only indy authors whereas Amazon tries to dungeon most erotic-and often other content as well-in favor of the big six publishers because they feel Stephen King needs the money more than you do, even though kindle was literally built ob indy authors, especially erotica at the start.

So check out Smashwords/D2D

If you have questions or need help, feel free to PM me.

I've a question. Doesn't work Smashwords like any other publisher? Meaning even if they have little restrictions in the end they try to put your title on amazon eventually?
Sure, I imagine you also can purchase books from their own shop, but is that really an alernative to amazon? Better than nothing I guess...

 

[Ada Stuart]

I don't get it. My stories were online for a couple month. Then all of a sudden most them vanished. Only 1 erotic title is still on amazon. Anyway. I always thought other titles which promise explicit material must be quite tame in reality. But if that isn't the case its pretty unfair.

Absolutely. Amazon seems to strike at random and when they first find you, then will go through all your titles and block one after another. If you speak up they might suddenly decide to block your account too. And they withhold the last three months of sales income too.

That's what happened to my titles. And Amazon was 75% of my income so I'm still mad about it. Still, it helps to know that it has happened to a lot of other writers, only it's too bad that it's how many readers you have that will decide whether Amazon will accept your titles or not.

Anyway, there are other sites that publish erotic titles without all the fuss: Smashwords, Eden Books, Google Play, Apple, Barnes and Noble. I also publish some titles directly on Kobo but they don't accept everything. Still, they are upfront with what they accept and don't, so it's much easier to deal with them.

That said, I'm also looking into Payhip. Selling directly from your own site seems to be a good solution for many authors.

 

[TanyaDeVayer]

Absolutely. Amazon seems to strike at random and when they first find you, then will go through all your titles and block one after another. If you speak up they might suddenly decide to block your account too. And they withhold the last three months of sales income too.

That's what happened to my titles. And Amazon was 75% of my income so I'm still mad about it. Still, it helps to know that it has happened to a lot of other writers, only it's too bad that it's how many readers you have that will decide whether Amazon will accept your titles or not.

Anyway, there are other sites that publish erotic titles without all the fuss: Smashwords, Eden Books, Google Play, Apple, Barnes and Noble. I also publish some titles directly on Kobo but they don't accept everything. Still, they are upfront with what they accept and don't, so it's much easier to deal with them.

That said, I'm also looking into Payhip. Selling directly from your own site seems to be a good solution for many authors.

Barnes & Nobles doesn't seem to attend much erotic readers though.

 

[TanyaDeVayer]

Barnes & Nobles doesn't seem to attend much erotic readers though.

At first it seems quite obvious that readers would switch to the playstore, but there is significantly less traffic. Maybe because google decided to change paying methods. Some years avo you could buy e-books via prepaid card. That has changed.

 

[Ada Stuart]

At first it seems quite obvious that readers would switch to the playstore, but there is significantly less traffic. Maybe because google decided to change paying methods. Some years avo you could buy e-books via prepaid card. That has changed.

Yes, I've seen the same, but the traffic seems to depend on genre. My contemporary romances don't sell at all, but the taboo titles do really well - not as well as Amazon though, but I take what I can get.

Eden Books is the biggest surprise so far. It was recommended to me by an author friend of mine since she was doing well over there. And they accept several genres for erotica including incest and taboo. Still, the best part, the readers are there too. I've only been there for a few months, but even now I get 10% of my entire income from that site alone, and that's a lot more than Barnes and Noble brings in.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I've a question. Doesn't work Smashwords like any other publisher? Meaning even if they have little restrictions in the end they try to put your title on amazon eventually?
Sure, I imagine you also can purchase books from their own shop, but is that really an alernative to amazon? Better than nothing I guess...

Doesn't Smashwords work like any other publisher? Yes. Will your stuff end up on Amazon eventually? No. They're competing companies. SW has their own store that formats to basically all readers(even Kindles), why would they sell titles on Amazon? That would be like Pizza Hut having Popa Johns selling their calzone through consignment. Amazon is a publisher too, that's what KDP is. Borders did that and you know what happened to them.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I'm pretty sure Smashwords and Lot's Cave are the only good options for Lit grade smut.