Amazon sex dungeon (and other tales from the for-profit lines)

Have stories to share? Post them here! All writers welcome.
Post Reply
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

The general press is just discovering that Amazon censors books. Funny, we've know about this for YEARS.

So if no one is buying your books on Amazon, and you don't know why, now you know.

http://heatst.com/world/heres-whats-hid ... p-dungeon/
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

And now we've got to deal with Amazon RANK STRIPPING.

It's not as sexy as it sounds. Yesterday Amazon stripped all erotica books of store-wide rank. They still have sub-cat ranking, but it looks like they are making it much harder for readers to find erotica. So writers, if your super heroine books are categorized as erotica, you might want to take a look.
User avatar
Disciple
Stories Mod
Stories Mod
Posts: 517
Joined: 15 years ago
Location: In front of a computer.

Hooo boy.

Is the situation any better over at Smashwords or any of the other big book-selling sites?
User avatar
Void
Sargeant
Sargeant
Posts: 140
Joined: 10 years ago

Hurm, disappointing but not massively surprising, I guess.

Doing a quick browse of the site I still seem able to find the same books with the same searches, so it doesn't look that troubling. Is this something that only affects people with a filter of some kind? I'm still impressed Amazon has the balls to host and distribute SHIP content. Could this even be seen as an encouraging sign - that they would rather partition racy, potentially offence content from those who don't wish to find it, rather than raise the bar of what they are willing to sell?

Either way, thanks for the heads up.
Lost in the night, and there is no morning.
Dazzle1
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 1770
Joined: 10 years ago

Void wrote:
6 years ago
Hurm, disappointing but not massively surprising, I guess.

Doing a quick browse of the site I still seem able to find the same books with the same searches, so it doesn't look that troubling. Is this something that only affects people with a filter of some kind? I'm still impressed Amazon has the balls to host and distribute SHIP content. Could this even be seen as an encouraging sign - that they would rather partition racy, potentially offence content from those who don't wish to find it, rather than raise the bar of what they are willing to sell?

Either way, thanks for the heads up.
Amazon could be taking the long view. There are people who would want certain books banned depending on their politics, some who would demand Amazon support the BDS.

You start appeasing one group it never stops.

when Barnes and Noble was the dominant book seller, there were plenty of people demanding the erotica and sex and relationship sections be removed
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

Smashwords still seems the most open to erotica and heroine peril books. Barnes & Noble had a mini-purge of erotica in 2017, but are still accepting it.
Imagineer
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 614
Joined: 12 years ago

They don't want people who aren't looking for erotica to find it by accident -- because the vast majority of customers who aren't looking for erotica don't want it cluttering their search results.

But Amazon wants everybody to buy everything from Amazon. And some people want to buy erotica.
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

Writers Beware!

Starting in April, Amazon has begun targeting writers in Select / Kindle Unlimited for CHEATING. Basically, if an auto-bot borrows and reads your book, they take away HALF of all of your page reads, then threaten to terminate your account if it EVER happens again.

Well, as a writer, I cannot control who borrows my books in KU, so to save my account I am being forced to pull all of my books out of the program. Honesty, I earned half my income from borrows, but I can take the chance. This is how I earn a living.

So think twice before placing your books in Amazon's Select/Kindle Unlmited program. They have no mercy, compassion, and will terminale you in a heartbeat if a bad actor you have no control over reads your book.
User avatar
tallyho
Ambassador
Ambassador
Posts: 5390
Joined: 13 years ago
Location: Land of No Hope and Past Glories

Thanks for the heads up Don

Disciple (our story mod) It might be an idea to flag this up in some way in our story sections for a spell just to draw peoples attention to it
How strange are the ways of the gods ...........and how cruel.

I am here to help one and all enjoy this site, so if you have any questions or feel you are being trolled please contact me (Hit the 'CONTACT' little speech bubble below my Avatar).
User avatar
Disciple
Stories Mod
Stories Mod
Posts: 517
Joined: 15 years ago
Location: In front of a computer.

tallyho wrote:
5 years ago
Thanks for the heads up Don

Disciple (our story mod) It might be an idea to flag this up in some way in our story sections for a spell just to draw peoples attention to it
Not a bad idea.

@MightyHypnotic could you move/duplicate this to the stories section when you get the chance?
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

Thanks. People need to understand the danger of Select / KU on Amazon.
User avatar
Abductorenmadrid
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 1376
Joined: 11 years ago
Contact:

OOOhhh, you guys are talking about real writers. Phew, I'm safe. But man, this sounds sucky, it's like there's no decent burden of proof to just junk someones reputation or livelihood. There's got to be a better way ....
My avatar courtesy of https://www.deviantart.com/sleepy-comics

My current story is Supergirl V Bane


This is all the stuff I've done here but don't tell anyone about this!
arkane
Henchman
Henchman
Posts: 94
Joined: 12 years ago

Just a quick question... Are there any sites selling ebooks belonging to explicitly erotic categories, where the author can self-publish?
It would be a way to avoid the "Amazon dungeon" and other harassment...
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

Heads up to writers:

This week, obviously to celebrate Thanksgiving, Barnes & Noble cut our royalty rate from 65 percent to 40 percent. Yep, more than one third of you royalties is gone.

Readers, everyone else pays the writers better than Barnes & Noble. So buy at Amazon or Smashwords (who pays best rates) to help your favorite writers keep writing.

This has been a public service announcement brought to you by... bitterness, I guess.

:angry:
User avatar
DrDominator9
Emissary
Emissary
Posts: 2455
Joined: 13 years ago
Location: On the Border of the Neutral Zone

Let me get this straight... the author does all the heavy lifting of creating the intriguing story arc, the captivating characters that draw in readers and the clever plot twists that amaze and delight everyone and yet now only receive less than half of the money from these efforts and the freaking distributors get the lion's share of things? Yep! Sounds fair to me.
Follow this link to descriptions of my stories and easy links to them:

viewtopic.php?f=70&t=32025
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

DrDominator9 wrote:
5 years ago
Let me get this straight... the author does all the heavy lifting of creating the intriguing story arc, the captivating characters that draw in readers and the clever plot twists that amaze and delight everyone and yet now only receive less than half of the money from these efforts and the freaking distributors get the lion's share of things? Yep! Sounds fair to me.
Yep. Thank God they can keep paying heir CEO millions. We wouldn't want him to "downsize" his mansion or anything. Besides, writers are used to being poor. Not a problem. Right?
Dogfish
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 934
Joined: 10 years ago

Mans needs moar yachts.
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

Okay, I don't know if it was glitch at Barnes & Noble, or there was more push back than anticipated, but B&N is paying the original royalty rate, backdated to the 19th of November. So my panic attack was a waste of time. LOL
User avatar
tallyho
Ambassador
Ambassador
Posts: 5390
Joined: 13 years ago
Location: Land of No Hope and Past Glories

Panic is a survival instinct. So its good to panic.On occasion.
Picnic isnt though so dont get them confused
How strange are the ways of the gods ...........and how cruel.

I am here to help one and all enjoy this site, so if you have any questions or feel you are being trolled please contact me (Hit the 'CONTACT' little speech bubble below my Avatar).
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

I'd rather have a picnic attack than a panic attack, because...FOOD. ;)
Renegade
Neophyte Lvl 5
Neophyte Lvl 5
Posts: 46
Joined: 13 years ago

Panic creates backlash, which (sometimes) creates walkback.

Glad to hear it worked out!
User avatar
DonShip
Overlord
Overlord
Posts: 575
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: Texas
Contact:

arkane wrote:
5 years ago
Just a quick question... Are there any sites selling ebooks belonging to explicitly erotic categories, where the author can self-publish?
It would be a way to avoid the "Amazon dungeon" and other harassment...
Not that I know of. If anyone else finds such a site let us all know.

BTW, Amazon took a lot of heat for their heavy handed ban hammer approach, so have backed off a lot. They are a "little" more careful before banning a writer now.
Rock2000
Neophyte
Neophyte
Posts: 4
Joined: 15 years ago

Boy...talk about snail mail.
Post Reply