C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

As I write this, "erotica" is still available on Amazon US but, as reported by The Telegraph at the link below, it’s deleted as a category from Amazon UK. If readers want it, they have to go searching by book title instead of by category. No word if this will happen elsewhere on Amazon. Perhaps this is a trial balloon to gauge reader reaction. Policy formation at the mighty Zon is an opaque thing, so if it happens, it happens to you without warning, polling or discussion. 

That’s their right, but this is an odd choice on several levels, and hypocritical at that, since Fifty Shades is still for sale loud and proud. I’m confounded. Amazon generally gives people what they want. That’s why they are so much more successful than other players. The move is a blow to reader choice, author free expression and zaps my backup plan for the fall if This Plague of Days doesn’t take off.

B&N has had issues with erotica, too, limiting an erotic book’s ability to rise past a rank of 126, as Wool author Hugh Howey discussed on his blog recently. I’ve never understood this conundrum: all kinds of violence is fine but get sexy and we have to put a leash on you.

(Thanks to loyal blog reader M.L. Sexton for the tip about Amazon UK!)

~ Chazz