The Hypocrisy of Amazon
By Deana Michaels
Censorship is alive and well in modern America and the world, coming down hard on the genre of Erotica. There are a number of genres that Amazon does not want erotica Authors to publish on their sites such as incest.
Now Amazon has no problem posting books that are non-erotica that deal with this topic, the best selling Game of Thrones and its sequels comes to mind with depictions of incest between twin siblings that could be ripped right out of the pages of any hot erotica. Or How I Live Now depicting first cousins getting hot and heavy in the aftermath of world war three.
But you want to write a hot story about a brother and sister, both adults and both consenting, that want to get it on, and suddenly your book is banned from Amazon. Why? Censorship. They make claims like it’s illegal, its immoral, it results in inbreeding. All of these points are easily refuted.
If you couldn’t write about something that is illegal than half of literature would be gone. From stories of vigilante justice, to murder, to serial killers, to vampires would all be banned. And immoral? The scarlet letter, anyone. And, sure, incest can lead to bad outcomes in the real world, but that isn’t what erotica is about. It’s about fantasies. About doing things you couldn’t do in the real world, having experiences that you couldn’t have for a lot of reasons.
So what’s an erotica author going to do who wants to write about an adult daughter and her father getting together, or siblings, or mothers and sons, or fathers and sons, or any combination in between? Simple, we call them ‘step-brother’ or ‘brother-in-law’ or ‘adopted father’. But everyone really knows what your doing, including the readers that eat up the ‘taboo’ books on Amazon, knowing it’s code for what the pseudo-incest substitute for what they really want and what Amazon is too scared to give them.
And that’s a shame. Censorship never is good, it limits the world, limits discussion, stifles growth. And those that are being censored will find ways around those forces, thinking outside of the box to find ways around the limitations and get their art out there.
About the Author: Deana Micheals is the newest author to join Naughty Ladies Publications and is the author of the upcoming Taboo Summer Vacation, the taboo story of love and lust as Kylie and Scott celebrate their engagement with their adopted families. After a night of drinking, taboo lust is kindled when Kylie slips into the wrong bed.
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Well said, Deana. The problem is that so much of the eBook world is controlled by Amazon that they become the defacto “law” of the land.
Until Amazon is cited as the monopoly that it is, it will be allowed to continue to set limits on what we can read.
guess they haven’t caught on to some of my content yet….
Guess your lucky. If someone reads it and gets offended, then complains to Amazon, you could get in trouble.
Yknow it feels like there’s been notable progress in REAL life. Surprisingly it’s actually mostly that either people just don’t give a shit that my brother and I are open about our incest because they consider it none of their business or they think it’s hot. The people that have really reacted negatively and at times made our lives a bit difficult have been in the minority. But that’s just talking about people we meet socially, testing out being open with people we could potentially play with isn’t something we have much experience with.
Well, I’m glad for you. 🙂
You other choice, besides turning the story into pseudo-incest, is to take it to Smashwords or another retailer who will sell it as-is. Amazon shouldn’t get it both ways — profiting from books that it sneers at.
True. I’ve gone onto to cuckolding stories. But Reed does pure incest on Smashword and Lot’s Cave.