Text of a post to my blog on Goodreads:
I'm
an erotica writer who has had books banned by Amazon. You get enough
books banned by Amazon, and you lose your Amazon account, so I've moved
all my titles that even MIGHT get banned by Amazon to Smashwords and
Barnes and Noble.
If
you are an erotica writer who publishes on Amazon, you know what a
minefield it can be. (If not, I'll be glad to go into detail in a thread
devoted to that topic.) But the thing is, it's not just the writers who
are being hurt by Amazon's peculiar censorship, it's the readers --
they are being denied the content they want by Amazon.
So
I was thinking all the Smashwords authors whose content has been banned
(Amazon prefers 'blocked" but it means "banned") by Amazon should get
together and develop some marketing tools to let indie readers know the
content they really want is on Smashwords and not Amazon.
One
of the simplest and most powerful ways to do that, I think, would be to
develop a "Too Hot For Amazon!" campaign which would involve letting
readers know that the content that they want is on Smashwords, not
Amazon . No individual author would own the campaign, it would be a
group endeavor designed to benefit all the authors involved.
The campaign could involve:
1)
Develop a "Too Hot For Amazon!" logo that all authors involved could
put on their Smashwords titles to let readers know that this particular
book is full of scorching hot content that readers seek
2)
Talk up the "Too Hot For Amazon!" topic on blogs, on message boards
(like this one) to try to get readers and other authors interested in
books on Smashwords and in their books ... of course, as part of it you
could promote your OWN books as Too Hot For Amazon! while promoting the
general notion that Smashwords is the place to go for content you can't
get at Amazon.
3)
Could also portray Amazon as fuddy-duddy and dull. This should be
fairly easy since the content that authors are producing there tends to
BE more fuddy-duddy and dull. What we want to do is attract readers who
are not content with Amazon's product, and make them aware of the Amazon
censorship that is making the product so dull.
4) Might even run some ads for your books on Smashwords that are "Too Hot for Amazon"
I
can do all of these things myself, for my books, but I'm just a single
voice i n the wilderness. All of us working together, I think, will be
able to pry many more readers loose from Amazon. So I thought I'd post
here and see
1) If there are a lot of other authors on Smashwords in my situation (I know there are) who
2) Like this idea and want to go with it.
I
think it could benefit, not just Smashwords erotica writers, but ALL
Smashwords writers, because it will bring greater attention to
Smashwords, and erotica readers read a LOT of stuff besides erotica.
What say you, O solons of the Smashwords author group on Goodreads?
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