PSA: Barnes and Noble has made keywords and publisher names unsearchable on their site. I hate to be the bearer of bad news twice in a week, but here we go again. This time it’s the folks over at Barnes and Noble. I’ve had reports (that I’ve now verified) that erotic keywords are being severely restricted. A search for “menage” comes… Read More
STEPping Out: Amazon’s Familiar Double Standard. Again. Still.
Five months ago, I did a blog post about Stepbrother Dearest – the first stepbrother book that broke the pseudoincest barrier, pushing into romance. At the time, I lamented the fact that as an erotica author, Amazon wouldn’t allow me to use the word “stepbrother.” Not in my title, not in my blurb, not anywhere (except maybe inside the book,… Read More
New Re-Branded Titles from Selena Kitt
Re-Covered Re-Titled & on SALE One Second Chance GAY MALE EROTIC ROMANCE EPIC AWARD WINNER (formerly titled “Second Chance”) Power Exchange BDSM EROTICA (formerly titled “The Flintstone Experiment”) Magical Meetings PARANORMAL EROTICA Can’t Walk Away (formerly titled “I’ll Be Your Superman“) Backroads Cop DUBCON EROTICA (formerly titled “On Cherry Hill”) His Shaved MILF INTERRACIAL CUB/COUGAR EROTICA (formerly titled “Shorn”) Behind… Read More
Hachette Authors Cry Censorship – Welcome to My World!
Hachette authors are crying “censorship!” Ursula K. Le Guin has been quoted as saying, “We’re talking about censorship: deliberately making a book hard or impossible to get, ‘disappearing’ an author.” Welcome to my world, Ms. Le Guin. Were you among the authors who, years ago when Amazon started banning erotica, slapping on the adult filter, making it generally difficult to… Read More
Amazon’s Continued Double Standard – About What You’d Expect
If you’re an erotica writer, you know that Amazon has a double standard. If you publish a title and put it into the “erotica” category, there are certain things that aren’t allowed in the title or on blurb. But if you put that same title and blurb into the “romance” category, it’s fine. Half-naked couples in a hot, torrid embrace… Read More
Banned (Erotic) Book Week 2014
It’s “banned books week” so of course I’m going to talk about banned books. Specifically, banned erotic books, since, that genre happens to be my bread and butter. Recently, Michelle Keep wrote a scathing (and oh-so-accurate) commentary about Amazon’s hypocritical stance on erotica. They advertised “banned books” in a public email, but behind the scenes, they continue to suppress erotica… Read More
Corporate Censorship: Amazon Targets Dark Erotic Romance & BDSM
Heads up authors: Amazon is targeting erotica again. This time, it’s “Dark Erotic Romance” (read: DubCon and NonCon) and BDSM. I hate to say I told you so – but I told you so. I said, back when Amazon caved and stopped carrying the ped0phile’s guide, that we were heading down a slippery slope. I said it again when my… Read More
Publishers Weekly: Indie Authors Deliver Erotica
Great article from Publisher’s Weekly, quoting yours truly, about Indie writers rocking the erotica world! Thank you, Allison Schiff, for writing such a sex-positive and erotica-positive article! And go go erotica authors! 😀 Some highlights: “Basically, they’re hiding our books on their site and it’s becoming harder and harder to find our audience,” says Kitt, whose incest-themed books were banned from… Read More
Excitica – New Erotica and Erotic Romance Distributor!
2013 was a hella year for erotica. And not always in such a good way. While it gave us some amazing new authors contributing to the genre, it brought a storm of corporate censorship along with it. The floodgates to erotica and erotic romance really opened in 2011 with the publication of the previously-published-as Twilight fanfiction instant phenom Fifty Shades… Read More
Nanny State Gone Wild in the UK
Well it’s happened to our friends across the pond. The Prime Minister has made it official – pornography will be blocked by default on the Internet in the UK unless you choose to “opt in” to receive it. (And of course, if you do “opt in,” your name will be forwarded to a UK government agency in charge of overseeing citizens… Read More
No Parental Controls? It’s Not About Parents – It’s About Profit
I write erotica for a living. I’m also a mother of four. And I do not allow my children to search anything on Amazon by themselves. That’s right–a majority of my income is derived from book sales on Amazon, and yet I won’t let my own children search for babysitting books or squirt guns on their site. Why not? Because… Read More
Corporate Fail
There’s been a lot posted about the corporations behind book selling lately, and to me, it just smells like a whole lot of “fail.” This is what happens when corporations gain so much power that people forget that corporations aren’t really “people.” Corporations are FOR people. They serve people. They consist OF people – the people who work at them,… Read More