There’s Nothing Romantic About Debbie Doing Daddy…
Sunday, February 26, 2012Posted in: e-pubbed authors behaving like fucktards?, E-publishers Behaving Very Badly
Tags:Bookstrand, Paypal
Admittedly it’s been a while since I’ve bought directly from an epublisher, but once upon a time, they used to be my favourite places to buy books. It seems amazing, but I used to buy books from the likes of Elloras Cave, Liquid Silver Publishing all the time. But now, not so much. All my book-buying takes place at Amazon these days.
However, had I come across the types of books that featured on Bookstrand’s home page, I’d have been mad as hell. When I go to a romance or erotic romance book site, the last thing I expect is to find books where a teen girl seduces or is seduced by her own father. Or brother. Or uncle. Or grandfather. Seriously people???
I also really hate books that paint rape as the most amazing sexual thing that could happen to a woman. It really isn’t.
I get that some people get off on those themes, but why the hell should they be sold at sites that are supposedly all about romance, erotic or otherwise?
I was on Goodreads the other day, and somebody on this thread commented that it seems to be the self-pubbed authors that are suffering the most. Some of these self-pubbed writers are of course mad as hell and apparently they’re accusing ebook publishers of targeting them because they outsell the more mainstream e-published authors. Seriously, you couldn’t make it up.
The people who try to argue that Paypal banning sites that sell such filth is an infringement on our rights are dead wrong in my opinion. This isn’t a human rights issue or a civil rights thing either. For Paypal it seems to be a financial decision, but even if it had been an ethical stance, I’d have been right there with my Pom-poms and accompanying cute outfit, cheering them on.
Books where teen girls shag their fathers to within an inch of their lives aren’t romantic, and they don’t belong in romance book sites, so if these publishers who used to allow these kind of stories to pervade their sites are now banning them, I’m all for it.
That reminds me, aren’t Total E Bound one of the sites that sell incest stories? I recall that everybody’s favourite author, Carol Lynne, once wrote a book that involved two brothers and a woman, and the sex wasn’t just between the brothers and the woman, if you know what I mean…
Mireya
February 26
7:09 pm
I find the outrage about Paypal pretty interesting. The main reason is that that those rules are not new at all. Several years ago, when I was still involved in the management of JERR (I left over a year ago now), I remember more than one epublisher of erotic romance being upset about it, as the rules seemed to be “overbroad”. There were discussions in forums and the like. I didn’t realize, until now, that they were not truly “enforcing” those rules.
Regarding romance, my first experiences in reading romance date to 2003, and it was via Ellora’s Cave that I got hooked on romance. Erotic romance was the first sub-genre of romance I ever read and what got me into exploring the genre further. If EC had had the sort of scenario you describe as a “bestselling” type of romance, I doubt I would be reading romance today. Even back then, when I was trying everything I could get my hands on, I steered clear of Lora Leigh’s August brother’s series, for example, because I was not sure what to think of it, and mind you, several of my friends recommended that series highly.
Incest and the like sort of stories have their place, but that place is DEFINITELY NOT among the romance genre in general. Most of those stories are, firstly, stories that I can easily get, for free, anywhere online or in places like VOD. They are powrn. Period. Some may argue “oh but my story depicts a romantic plot”… still, incest, rape, and similar scenarios would be a niche within romance, if we want to split hairs and give them the benefit of the doubt. As such, however, it has no place being sold mixed up with regular romance without, at the very least, appropriate tagging so that readers that don’t care about it, don’t end up in the wrong place.
As it is, EC itself is now selling powrn… well, they don’t use the word powrn of course, but they have the imprint under a different name, the same way they differentiate between erotic romance (what they call romantica), mainstream romance (Blush imprint) and erotic fiction (Exotica imprint). Frankly, though I don’t purchase as much erotic romance as I used to (not even remotely close) I appreciate that they actually bother to make it a bit easier for customers to actually be able to find what they are looking for.
Bottom line, I agree with you 100%.
M
Karen Scott
February 26
8:03 pm
As it is, EC itself is now selling powrn… well, they don’t use the word powrn of course, but they have the imprint under a different name,
Oh really? What a bummer. Mind you, I don’t know why I care, it’s not like I buy from them any more.
I also used to buy from Loose-Id, but seeing as the majority of their stuff are GLBT books, I don’t bother.
Mireya
February 26
9:31 pm
Yeah, they introduced EC for men… which involves pretty much porn stories like you would find in Hustler or Playboy mags. They also closed the Cerridwen imprint, but replaced it with the Blush line. They keep trying different things. However, I only get books from them on rare occasions, as most of my favorites from way back when are no longer there.
Lori
February 28
2:49 am
If All Romance ebooks says no to incest and rape, well, they call themselves romance so I don’t have huge problems that they’re separating it out.
But I do have issues with those sellers who are not romance like smashwords and Bookstrand suddenly caving. I might not read ‘Debbie Does Daddy’ but I think other people should have the right.
And I think making the choice not to let PayPal determine obscenity might be better for the book sellers in the long run.