Does Amazon sell incest novels now?

[8letters]

I was goofing around and discovered a large number of "Taboo sex stories" being sold on Amazon. Someone going by "Margaret Drain" has 114 taboo anthologies selling (link). I've not had to worry about someone selling my I/T stories on Amazon so far because they haven't sold I/T. Will all those novels get pulled down eventually?

 

[ElectricBlue]

If they make money for Amazon, I doubt it.

I have a novel distributed through Amazon that tags incest themes, they have no problem taking their cut.

 

[stxjimmy]

Probably, they sell everything else.

 

[lovecraft68]

The official answer is no, not real incest, they do allow step. The word taboo is allowed in a title.
The official answer is no and they do not allow the words mommy, daddy, sister etc in erotic titles or the descriptions....these rules were put in place in the 2013 witch hunt where they blocked a lot of titles-also some non con and other stuff, but gave you a chance to clean up the book, in other words, disguise it so they can pretend they don't know what's in it and wink wink

That was enforced for a couple years, but as always they're now lax and you can find all types of incest titles on amazon complete with mommy etc titles. But of course they can reject and block one on a whim, while there are thousands on there(you know, just like lit does with their fake rules) but most are passed through.

Its frustrating to see the rule breakers selling and making a lot of money while people like me who follow the rules make a fraction of what we used to.

But sooner or later they'll get a complaint from some moral majority type, and they'll have another purge and all those people will lose their accounts.

This has been a cycle going back to sometime before 2010

Worth noting if you lose your amazon account, good luck with getting another one, they're pretty tight with keeping records.

 

[lovecraft68]

I checked the link and the fact a lot of the titles are in the kindle unlimited make it even more of an eye roll....but if she gets her account locked, she won't even have any money to show for it

 

[Zeb_Carter]

All my true incest stories that are on Amazon have a disclaimer at the beginning saying the mom is their adopted parent and that they have called her mom or mother there entire life. After that it's the same as posted here.

ETA: And I wonder if she is the model on all her covers. It looks like the same person on all 8 pages of her covers. And it look like it all Father/Daughter stuff. And the titles alone should have triggered Amazons censors.

 

[Maxiine]

Lot's Cave

 

[lovecraft68]

Lot's Cave

I'd be wary of publishing with them.

 

[lovecraft68]

Smashwords allows it as well as non con and beastie, you have to click a box declaring that content is there so they can make sure the only people who see it are looking for it. That was started a couple years ago and it increased sales for me since they steamlined the search, that's all amazon has to do, but they'd rather say they don't want it, let you publish it, make money for a while, then ban it after enough moral majority complaints and blame the authors.

Carnal Pleasures allows it and there is a publisher named Publish Drive that has a lot of international affiliates and some allow taboo. A European platform, Stealth out of Italy I think accepts it, but only to certain affiliates.

 

[Maxiine]

I'd be wary of publishing with them.

They (Lot's Cave) have always been fair with me.

 

[Lovecraft_Lore]

How much money do these e-books really make on Amazon? Hundreds? Thousands?

 

[ElectricBlue]

How much money do these e-books really make on Amazon? Hundreds? Thousands?

I've earned a few coffees, and a pizza or three.

But then, I don't keep churning out content like others do - which would appear is the only way to make a buck. It's a bit like a hamster wheel, you gotta keep it turning.

I make more in two hours from my day job than I have from total book sales over four years. Others have done far better, but they seem to do nothing else.

 

[Maxiine]

....churning out content... is the only way to make a buck. It's a bit like a hamster wheel, you gotta keep it turning...

It pays actual money... but not enough to live on if you have any real expenses. I have thousands of stories written over more than 30 years. So, unless something you write catches fire-- and since nothing I write is "normative" I doubt any of mine will-- it is not a viable profession for the vast majority.

But, since I never learned to knit, it's a great hobby.

 

[lovecraft68]

It pays actual money... but not enough to live on if you have any real expenses. I have thousands of stories written over more than 30 years. So, unless something you write catches fire-- and since nothing I write is "normative" I doubt any of mine will-- it is not a viable profession for the vast majority.

But, since I never learned to knit, it's a great hobby.

I play it safe on amazon hence I make around $350-400 a month there. When they allowed taboo content a few years back I could do $1200 a month and that was on less than a third of the titles I have now. I get tempted when I see them letting anyone put up anything again, but I know in the end they'll bring the hammer down again and those people will lose their account.

On Smashwords I get between $500-$600 a month then another couple hundred through a publisher I use for Stealth and Public drive and a few bucks from google play.

But even 1k+ a month isn't replacing a day job, but it's a steady income that adds up because my wife and I do well enough we don't have to use it to get by, its savings and an occasional splurge on something fun.

The trick is to keep new stuff coming out. Its like Lit, you're as good as your last story. You can amass a decent size library, but go a few months with nothing new those sales dwindle fast.

I'm closing in on e-book #200 since 2011 and many of mine are novel length, not 8k strokers, and all while working full time, so EB's crack of "do nothing else" isn't accurate as in addition to working, writing, family I maintain an ebay store where I sell comics and pull some additional money in from that. You want it, you work for it, and if you're not willing to burn it at both ends get out of the game.

 

[Maxiine]

Amazon and Smashwords blow back and forth with the prevailing political wind. I particularly despise the way Smashwords does exactly what they deny doing. If they don't want to sell Incest, or BDSM, or the thing Julie was the queen of here-- with three dozen red Hs-- before it was banned... Ya know, it is a private business... Whatever... What I hate is saying they are anti-censorship while censoring. Mostly because they ban 12-year-old scotch, women in dog costumes, and people having normal dialogues.

No, you can't "live" on two grand a month if you have a mortgage, car payment, and no health insurance. But hey...it's something.

 

[lovecraft68]

Amazon and Smashwords blow back and forth with the prevailing political wind. I particularly despise the way Smashwords does exactly what they deny doing. If they don't want to sell Incest, or BDSM, or the thing Julie was the queen of here-- with three dozen red Hs-- before it was banned... Ya know, it is a private business... Whatever... What I hate is saying they are anti-censorship while censoring. Mostly because they ban 12-year-old scotch, women in dog costumes, and people having normal dialogues.

No, you can't "live" on two grand a month if you have a mortgage, car payment, and no health insurance. But hey...it's something.

I've been publishing on SW for 11 years and they have never censored anything unless it was under 18, and legit under 18, not lit because someone said "I had sex at 16" The only inconsistency I've seen is somewhere they mention they don't want full on rape fantasy, but do have them.

But I'm sure I know where you got that from, sounds just like someone I used to know. Initials PTW.

They don't have incest as a category or non con for a certain reason, but its used in the tags and people can easily find what they want.

Amazon on the other hand says we don't take this, but hey pile it on, make some money, we'll make some money, then when someone complains we ban your account and blame you.

In amazon's TOS they claim they accept no pornographic material, but have hundreds of thousands of erotic e-books at this point, but they will block your book using that reason while all those other books are still around, in other words, Lit shares their model.

 

[Maxiine]

Both SW and Lit began with looser "rules," and both have payed lip service to "tightening" the rules-- by imposing unrealistic "paper" constraints that are mostly unenforced-- while giving highly rated / best selling authors a pass on those rules. Then they show they are "serious" about the new rules by singling out stories that don't actually violate the new rules (or new interpretations of the existing rules).

This results in ridiculous situations such as the site allowing stories depicting actual brutal forcible rape while paying lip service to not permitting non-con by rejecting a story where a woman in consensual relationships wakes her lover with a BJ-- calling that rape.

 

[lovecraft68]

Both SW and Lit began with looser "rules," and both have payed lip service to "tightening" the rules-- by imposing unrealistic "paper" constraints that are mostly unenforced-- while giving highly rated / best selling authors a pass on those rules. Then they show they are "serious" about the new rules by singling out stories that don't actually violate the new rules (or new interpretations of the existing rules).

This results in ridiculous situations such as the site allowing stories depicting actual brutal forcible rape while paying lip service to not permitting non-con by rejecting a story where a woman in consensual relationships wakes her lover with a BJ-- calling that rape.

I fully agree with you in my experience here.
I disagree with you on Smashwords, not just from my personal experience, but from a lot of authors I've gotten to know from there as well as publishers.
What I will say is that in a conversation I had with Mark Coker the owner of SW who is still going to be part of he new D2D merge we spoke of books with rape in the title and description which I thought he didn't allow. He admitted the rule was vague and they let a lot go, but if an author has too many of them they'll contact them and warn them. My point was if you're going to let someone post 15 books, then try to tell them they can't do it, its kind of unfair, but in the end I don't think they do anything unless they get too many complaints

Unlike amazon and Lit. SW will be fair if there is an issue they will contact you with the problem, you do get a chance to explain or if that's not satisfactory they give you a chance to change the content, cover etc. No one is perfect, but after a dozen years in this game I have found them to be the most consistently fair

I'll repeat I know where your opinion comes from, and from who. I've heard this from the horses mouth years ago when I was being courted by a publisher to betray another publisher.

As for your example, well, I wouldn't be me if I didn't say of course a group of men can rape a woman here and its awesome, but without express consent from the man no woman should be touching them ewwww a blowjob I didn't ask for....bet she's a cheating whore reeeeeeee!

All sarcasm aside, I sum lit up like this "we don't allow rape stories" one of the all time most favorited stories on the site is titles Raping Chay.

I rest my case.

I'll also add that the ridiculous 'the victim has to like it' rule does more harm than actual rape stories. The message in a rape story is, okay, this is a rape fantasy, shouldn't do this for real, but for a story it's hot if you're into this sort of thing. The victim has to do a ludicrous 360 in mid rape and start acting like a porn star is simple "No never means no" great message to push, but this is the site that gives Loving Wives the spotlight and treats the incels like preferred customers.

 

[thomas1965]

Amazon is not Amazon. Seems amazon.com has different kind of rules than amazon.co.uk or amazon.de.