Is Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Violating their own Content Guidelines?
A fellow author has recently been removed from Amazon’s Kindle store. Her account with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) was terminated and all her outstanding royalties have been forfeited, meaning that Amazon is keeping all the money made from her works that they have not yet paid to her.
Now there are a few things about her situation that are concerning. The first of which is that Amazon terminated her account for violating their content guidelines, which basically state no porn. They advised her specifically that they, “ don’t sell pornography or hardcore material that depict graphic sexual acts,” but that’s not what their content guidelines actually state.
Their guidelines state “We don’t sell certain content including content that we determine is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism, or other material we deem inappropriate or offensive.”
There’s nothing in there about graphic sex scenes, though that last statement leaves the door open for them to arbitrarily terminate accounts. There are thousands of top selling romance novels with graphic sex scenes. Game of Thrones not only has graphic sex scenes, but also includes multiple incidents of brother-sister incest. Does Amazon find that less offensive than erotica?
One quick search in the Kindle store with the exact terms they say they don’t allow turns up books with titles like, Explicit Hardcore By Dirty Daddy or Ganged by Hardcore Doctors or even X-Rated Hardcore Erotica. Amie’s content is tame compared to this.
Some of these books have been up for over ten years on the Kindle store. Others were published in the last few weeks. I have no doubt that Amazon/KDP could easily filter out books with these hot button words in their title. I mean, anyone who’s published a book on KDP knows it can take up to 72 hours to get through their vetting process. Yet they want us to believe this just slipped through the cracks? Or is Amazon breaking their own content guidelines?
They say they don’t sell material that depicts graphic sex, yet they have a specific category for erotica. The very definition of erotica has to do with sex. One definition is, “works of art that show or describe sexual activity, and that are intended to arouse sexual feelings.” Another definition is, “books, pictures, etc. that produce sexual desire and pleasure.”
Technically, porn can fall under either of these definitions. This just makes the water murkier. Does having an erotica category at all mislead authors into thinking their work falls within Amazon’s content guidelines? Or is Amazon breaking their own Content guidelines by allowing such a category?
So, I don’t think it’s that my friend violated their content guidelines. I think it’s that she became too successful for her erotica niche. Her books got good reviews, lots of them. Each of her titles had hundreds of four start reviews. Her books were getting read and she was getting a little too visible for Amazon’s liking. I mean check her out on Goodreads where you can still see her reviews.
That’s just conjecture on my part, but why else would they remove her stories that actually had a storyline and sexual tension?
This isn’t the only scenario where KDP breaks their own rules. I have friends who are hybrid authors, meaning they have a contract with a publisher, but they also publish independently, mostly through KDP.
As an indie author, if you want to find new readers, KDP’s Kindle Unlimited is where it’s at. Kindle Unlimited charges subscribers a monthly fee that goes into a pot. Then they calculate how many pages get read per month. KDP takes out their chunk, divides the remaining and pay authors a fraction of a cent for each page of their book that was read.
Now, if you’re an indie author and you want your book in Kindle Unlimited, the ebook must be exclusive to KDP. you can’t sell the book on any other website (not even your own website) while it’s in Kindle Unlimited.
Many authors are willing to take that hit because there are so many readers who have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. However, KDP has recently made deals with distributors (read big name author books) that allows the books they distribute to be available on Kindle Unlimited without that pesky exclusivity clause. Guess that rule can be bent or broken when it suits KDP.
This isn’t about whether you write romance or erotica or nonfiction. This is about the fact that Amazon makes all the rules. When we break the rules, we get banned for life. When they break the rules, they simply make more money.
Consider supporting Amie Barnes on Ream (I’m teaming up with her there) or check out her books that she’s uploading to Smashwords (soon available on Kobo, Google Play Books and EdenBooks)
