Elizabeth Banned on Kindle for Content
Just in case you don’t know what has been going on at our house lately, Amazon decided to block Elizabeth’s Destiny for sale on Kindle because of content. Not like we’ve had that book on Amazon and in KDP Select for about two years and no one has ever said anything about it. Funny though that through Createspace we can sell the paperback on Amazon and that’s just fine. If you would like to buy the paperback on Amazon click here.
We received this letter in the evening even though on the KDP Dashboard is showed that Elizabeth had been blocked in the morning. So after Jolynn got home from work we called and got a support ticket sent in asking about it. The next day or so, another email came saying it could be republished if it was renamed, had a different cover, a sanitized description and blurb. Then it would have to go through the review process all over again. All the reviews would be gone, since it would be a ‘new’ book. There is no way we could take all the kink and BDSM out of Elizabeth’s Destiny along with the storyline and just have it be a book about nothing.
So Jolynn called and send in another support ticket to have it taken off of Kindle entirely since it’s blocked and we couldn’t do anything with it. It has been taken off Kindle and just the listing for the paperback remains. The KDP Dashboard still shows it as blocked even though it’s not even listed anymore. I’ve signed up with Draft2Digital to get Elizabeth up as an ebook somewhere else, along with Primal Cravings: An Erotic BDSM Romance. Olivia will still be on Amazon and in KDP, but it won’t be in Select. Today we can put it up somewhere else also since she is still in the dungeon.
When we had called the first time about Elizabeth, I also asked about Primal Cravings. I got into a heated but polite debate with a support lady about Primal Cravings being tagged Adult, and she refused to send in a support ticket for that. She said she would not send a support ticket to the KDP Publishing people since Carnal Passions has BDSM in it, and BDSM means bondage and sadomasochism, and it didn’t matter if it was a romance with anal sex in it, it needed to be tagged as adult. She said a lot more, but I can’t remember it exactly. Jolynn said that if I had gotten another lady on the phone besides her I might have gotten somewhere, since she was so dead set. The support lady was telling me that no matter what we title the book as, or what the cover looks like, it will be tagged as adult since it has BDSM in it. Which is ridiculous since there are loads of BDSM books on Amazon and they are not all tagged Adult so you can’t find them unless you turn off the Adult filter. So I call bullshit on that. I don’t see the Fifty Shades trilogy tagged as Adult, or the scads of other books on there. So if you are an Indie author I suggest that you check your keywords so they don’t trigger anything, your book covers not be super obvious {which Elizabeth is not}, and your description be toned down a notch. So no dubious content with slave girls that practice in the art of BDSM for their Masters pleasure, along with kidnapping them in the first place so they can do all that.
The Letter:
Kindle Direct Publishing
Sep 29 at 8:40 PM
Hello,
We’re contacting you regarding the following book:
Elizabeth’s Destiny: A Kinky Historical Romance by Raymond, Jolynn (AUTHOR); Scott, Rachel (EDITOR)
During our review process, we found that this content is in violation of our content guidelines. As a result, we cannot offer this book for sale. If we identify additional submissions with similar content that violates our guidelines, we may terminate your account or you may lose access to optional KDP services.
To learn more about our content guidelines, please visit our Kindle Direct Publishing Help page at:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A1KT4ANX0RL55I
Best regards,
Kindle Direct Publishing
kdp.amazon.com
The problem is that it’s entirely subjective with the reviewer. I’ve had success in these instances by arguing that my books are no more explicit than 50SOG and I’ve had many adult tags removed that way.
I had a letter written saying just that but didn’t send it. My hope was to save Lessons of Love which is my best seller. I did indeed save it, but now am having issues with the watered down blurb. I feel like I can’t win. I may try to talk to someone who is far less prudish and get the adult take taken off Primal cravings, because really? Anal sex is so bad that we have to tag it? What about gay erotica? They don’t have
‘traditional’ sex. And yes, the while 50 Shades thing makes me want to scream. That book is okay? Really? Thanks for the comment and support.
That is total crap. There are some many books out there that should be flagged, but they slide through just fine. It’s interesting stuff. I was warned about this filter by Opal Carew, who writes a ton of BDSM, Menage, etc. She has had to battle this as well and has won every time. I had thrown out a recent question to a romance writing blog I’m on through the RWA Contemporary Romance Writers, about the use of the word “cum” or “come”, which always throws my editing team off, and found that I should never use the word “cum” because it’s flagged. Are you kidding? Ridiculous! Whatever you have to do to get them to uncensor your book…do it! GOOD LUCK!
Heather M. Miles
I must confess to saying the hell with them and just yanking Elizabeth’s Destiny. That response was fueled by the desire to have them leave my other books alone and the fact that I refused to bicker with their narrow minded people. There are other venues to sell my book that won’t make me water down the books blurb and allow me to sell my product to those who like dubious consent and dark romance. Thank you for your support.
I’m so sorry about all that has happened, and getting angrier with Amazon by the day. Ironically, your situation led me right to Lessons of Love which I am enjoying now, and as soon as Elizabeth’s Destiny is available in ebook somewhere I’ll be buying that. And crossing my fingers – I’ll be submitting my first book in about a month – with a storyline all about slavery. Ugh.
I’m signing up to receive posts – and hoping you have some good news to share soon.
Thank you Sophie. It has been somewhat of a nightmare. At first I was shocked and then anger set in along with fear. I can’t believe that after two years the book is suddenly banned. I held my breath as they reviewed Lessons after I sanitized the blub. sales are now almost nil, and the one copy of lessons that was sold was returned. I imagine I’ll be getting some angry reviews from people because the spanking, rough treatment, and basic storyline with a nasty male lead wasn’t spelled out and fore warned. I could pull my hair out.