Is Amazon Loosening Up On Erotic Books?

[gordo12]

I've been a member for years, getting daily book offers. Despite all the erotic books I've purchased, the offers have never included Erotic titles till the last 3-4 weeks.

Today:

Multi-Orgasmic: Vol. 2
By Lucy Felthouse
Experience sizzling celebrity encounters, unexpected passion, inventive DIY bondage, and so much more in this page-turning anthology of erotic short stories that will light your fire!
Erotic Romance

The usual crappy Amazon algorithms. I've never even searched in Erotic Romance, but it's a start

 

[lovecraft68]

Maybe they're finally keying in on your buying habits?

Speaking of amazon and their BS of hiding books. Check out the 6/15 update on the Smashwords updates page

https://www.smashwords.com/about/updates

Damn straight all indy authors should support this woman and the cause.

 

[gordo12]

Maybe they're finally keying in on your buying habits?

Speaking of amazon and their BS of hiding books. Check out the 6/15 update on the Smashwords updates page

https://www.smashwords.com/about/updates

Damn straight all indy authors should support this woman and the cause.

The only thing they've ever keyed in on is Westerns and Scifi. I like those and do get offered a few (very few). The kind of books I get offered have never been on my interest list or purchasing history. I buy a ton of Scifi and space battles, but get offered second world war battles and spycraft. Political books too. I've never even clicked on one.

Let's hope that the FTC can make a case. Between Amazon and the Credit Card companies, I believe there is a real prior restraint of trade issues.

 

[LAHomedog]

You know, they are under extreme anti-trust attacks from congress and others right now. Amazon and three or four other large tech companies including FB and Apple. One would think it is Republican led, but it is bi-partisan.

Larry Ellison/Oracle and Microsoft are leading the charge, but others are in on it too.

Maybe Amazon are loosening the reins as part of their defense...

 

[colddiesel]

The main part of Amazon's defence will be the Political donations they make.

 

[lovecraft68]

You know, they are under extreme anti-trust attacks from congress and others right now. Amazon and three or four other large tech companies including FB and Apple. One would think it is Republican led, but it is bi-partisan.

Larry Ellison/Oracle and Microsoft are leading the charge, but others are in on it too.

Maybe Amazon are loosening the reins as part of their defense...

Its smart for it to be bi-partisan because although the above companies certainly favors one side at the moment, it can turn on a dime, so its an instance of realizing it benefits all of them to try and keep these companies in check.

Not to mention regardless of party affiliation the things these companies are doing affect every person regardless of how they vote. But let's face it, its about their own asses, not the people.

 

[HeyAll]

On a side note, Kindle Unlimited offers tons of erotica books.

I used the 2 month free trial and have extended it with a deal they gave, and the amount of erotica they offer is substantial. Most of it are new books that deal with a woman falling for a mafia member or something.

 

[gordo12]

On a side note, Kindle Unlimited offers tons of erotica books.

I used the 2 month free trial and have extended it with a deal they gave, and the amount of erotica they offer is substantial. Most of it are new books that deal with a woman falling for a mafia member or something.

It seems like a flood of authors using KU now. I have it as a reader and it's rare now to find an erotic author trying to charge. Even normal books now. It used to be they'd throw the first book in and the subsequent books were paid. Now I get the entire series from beginning to end free.

I understand they only get pennies on the dollar with KU. I haven't been able to confirm that. Nobody seems to want to talk about it?

 

[gordo12]

On the note of Amazon loosening up:

How interesting is this. My Amazon email today included two hotwife erotica books. There were only 4 books and two of them were erotic.

Hotwife Erotica - The Magician's...
by Raven Merlot
Emily has a shameful secret. She's in love, in LUST, with a corny stage magician. It's childish and naïve, but she would do anything to sleep with that man. It's a secret, a passing fascination, nothing...

Hotwife Erotica - Stuck in a Rut:...
by Raven Merlot
I'm a fan of unconventional couples therapy!Daisy and Mack’s marriage is in a slump. She’s twenty-nine and he’s just a few years older, yet they’re already living like an old married couple. When she...

Not my genre btw but these were also KU books.

So there were two Hotwife books. A book in French, which I've never shopped or searched for, and a western that I did download. Love westerns!

Strange search algorithms though.

 

[AloneTooLong]

I have KU; I also ignore most of Amazon's suggestions! I love the Black Light series. I use OHFB, for example, as 'suggestions' that are better than Amazon (because I can check books from which genre I want to hear about. Some are free, some reduced. They do offer BDSM, menage, etc. I usually avoid the 'sports', 'college age', mafia type.

 

[gordo12]

This weekend I got a list of ten books in an email. Eight reflected the searches I normally do for new erotic books, and two were Westerns that I love to read.

It was an accurate reflection of my book buying and search efforts. Amazon has definitely loosened the reins on erotic books.

Perhaps we'll see them start to display them properly again.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Gee, Kindle... I get about $0.50 from them every so often. I sell more at Smashwords than I ever did at Amazon.

 

[RejectReality]

This weekend I got a list of ten books in an email. Eight reflected the searches I normally do for new erotic books, and two were Westerns that I love to read.

It was an accurate reflection of my book buying and search efforts. Amazon has definitely loosened the reins on erotic books.

Perhaps we'll see them start to display them properly again.

Probably just on KU, since it maximizes their profit through subscriptions. And likely only to people who purchase or search them, minimizing their exposure to the offended.

 

[lovecraft68]

Read the 6/15 announcement. Amazon's game of trying to force everyone into their exclusive programs by giving them visibility while burying everyone else has gotten the attention of a lot of people, its just one of many anti-trust violations that are coming their way

https://www.smashwords.com/about/updates

 

[lovecraft68]

Gee, Kindle... I get about $0.50 from them every so often. I sell more at Smashwords than I ever did at Amazon.

Over the course of Smashwords monthlong July sale I sold 989 e-books. That's about 8-9 months worth of amazon sales.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I understand they only get pennies on the dollar with KU. I haven't been able to confirm that. Nobody seems to want to talk about it?

The author receives $0.05 for each page that the reader moves through on your story. It takes thousands of page reads to make much much money, so collection of short stories would be the best bet for writers of short fiction.

My father's work used to make about 50% from sales and 50% from page reads and page reads pays better if they read the story cover to cover on novels like he writes. His longest is 110,000 words and still, after I'm not sure how many years, makes me some amount of money from the page reads. All of his stories sell but he hasn't published any new work for three years.

but pop's doesn't write erotica, he writes westerns and mysteries. I'm the only dirty writer in the family.

 

[gordo12]

Gee, Kindle... I get about $0.50 from them every so often. I sell more at Smashwords than I ever did at Amazon.

Maybe with more exposure that will change.

Probably just on KU, since it maximizes their profit through subscriptions. And likely only to people who purchase or search them, minimizing their exposure to the offended.

I wish you would have mentioned that earlier. I already deleted the email and can't tell if it's all KU or not.

The author receives $0.05 for each page that the reader moves through on your story. It takes thousands of page reads to make much much money, so collection of short stories would be the best bet for writers of short fiction.

My father's work used to make about 50% from sales and 50% from page reads and page reads pays better if they read the story cover to cover on novels like he writes. His longest is 110,000 words and still, after I'm not sure how many years, makes me some amount of money from the page reads. All of his stories sell but he hasn't published any new work for three years.

but pop's doesn't write erotica, he writes westerns and mysteries. I'm the only dirty writer in the family.

If your dad writes Westerns I do too and love to read them. If you like PM me his pen name and I'll have a look. Maybe I can increase his sales stats.

If you'd rather keep it confidential, that's ok too.

 

[Ian_Snow]

It seems like a flood of authors using KU now. I have it as a reader and it's rare now to find an erotic author trying to charge. Even normal books now. It used to be they'd throw the first book in and the subsequent books were paid. Now I get the entire series from beginning to end free.

I understand they only get pennies on the dollar with KU. I haven't been able to confirm that. Nobody seems to want to talk about it?

KU provides the bulk of my income. We get paid a fraction of a penny per page read, but the numbers of pages read makes up for that to the point where KU constitutes about 75% of my income. What we get paid per page varies month to month based on a combined pool set by Amazon, so (purely for example) if the pool is thirty million, that's divided between all authors based on KU page reads. There is a bonus to the top earning KU authors, but you have to have some monster numbers for that to happen.

Hope this helps!

 

[lovecraft68]

Unrelated to the exact topic, but for anyone not familiar....this is what its like to deal with amazon. I submitted a book on Sunday night....on Monday it was back in draft, means they have an issue, but its not a content issue so they kicked it back to me, content the book is blocked

This was their message as to what was wrong...this is copy paste

Titles that can cause a misleading customer experience may include:
• Unnecessary repetitive terms or phrases within the title, subtitle or series field
• Unauthorized reference to other titles or authors
• Unauthorized reference to a trademarked term
• Reference to sales rank (e.g., "bestselling")

As you see there is no actual "this is what you need to fix" this is vaguer than Lits BS rejection letters.

So now I have to guess what to fix or try to whittle it down. All I could think of is author name because I have an alternate pen name and sometimes publish the same title under both, I explained that to them previously back when a human would deal with you and they understood it.

I replied about that name and the reply they sent was the same e-mail I posted above word for word....I thought it might be a different person sending me the same notification but my e-mail was in the chain...I still have to guess what to fix and do it within 5 days or the books is blocked, and if I guess wrong they may block it just because I keep getting it wrong

This is amazon.