Apparently Bookstrand Are Pulling Incest and Other Porn From Their Site…
Friday, February 24, 2012Posted in: e-pubbed authors behaving like fucktards?, E-publishers Behaving Very Badly, Incest is certainly not best
Oh I’m so devastated. Not.
The last time I looked at the Bookstrand site, all the books on the front page seemed to be about teenage girls being diddled by, either their fathers, or their brothers. I get that some people enjoy that kind of thing, but honestly, it put me off from visiting the site.
Jane at Dear Author posted that Paypal were cracking down on publishers and retailers who sold books containing incest, rape, etc. She originally referenced Siren Publishing as one of the epubs that were being targeted.
She then got a slightly snotty email back from the Siren people who explained that they’ve never had the disgusting themes in their books, and blamed the self-pubbed arseholes “who don’t know where to draw the line when it comes to obscenity.”
The Siren people continue:
We have deactivated those self-pubbed titles from BookStrand as per PayPal’s specific request. Currently, these are the same titles still offered for sale by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and All Romance Ebooks…
I don’t know what your agenda is, but it is irresponsible of you for not checking your facts before making such an outlandish and false statement.
I demand that you remove such blatant inaccuracy that stems from your ignorance about what we publish.
Strong words from the people who allowed Lola Newmar to put out books about one apparently virginal female (aged 21), who ends up shagging seven shapeshifting longhorn bulls. I’m not even sure how to describe such a thing.
It seems that the reason that Paypal are ditching these sites were financial rather than on any ethical grounds. Apparently credit card companies don’t like dealing with porn retailers as they are a risky proposition. There are also a lot of chargebacks apparently.
Anyway, I for one sure am happy about the turn of events. It’s at least one less website featuring incest porn. Ewwwww…
Teddypig has a really interesting post on the subject of the number of incest stories on offer over at All Romance Ebooks.
Lori
February 25
6:41 am
Paypal has apparently now started hitting all the ebook sellers with the same. Smashwords, All Romance…
**sigh** There goes my underage puppy loving on her daddy story. /jk
black (non AA) reader
February 25
8:24 pm
Siren isn’t the only place hawking incest fics, maybe theirs are some of the most explicit but the other so called reputable places are selling all that twincest and more stuff, where brothers share the same woman, sometimes at the same time.
Karen Scott
February 26
1:24 pm
The epub that, porn extraordinaire, Carol Lynne, writes for, do twincest books. I can’t remember what the publisher is called, but they dont seem to have a problem with incest themed stories. Ok, must find out what the epub is called.
Becky H
February 26
2:46 pm
Total E bound is the epub for Carol Lynne”s twincest book…even the title is gross …Good Time Boys…seriously?
Becky H
February 26
2:48 pm
Sorry it is called Twin Temptations and part of series called Good Time Boys…I looked it up on their website
Karen Scott
February 26
3:14 pm
Thanks Becky, I found it:)
Roslyn Holcomb
February 26
4:21 pm
I’m still amazed that anyone is trying to argue this. Let alone for 300+ posts. If I hear one more person accuse PP of censorship I will scream. It’s a money issue. One they’ve stood by for more than a decade. And if they’re guilty of censorship so is every publisher who refuses to sell these categories. And I’m really annoyed by this implication that by not taking up the banner fir them I’m somehow hurting other authors in a “first they came for the Jews” scenario. First, most if my books are sold at places that don’t use PP–epub sites and Amazon. I have books at SW and ARe, but they account for a tiny percentage of my sales. If I can sell books without PP, why can’t they?