Welcome to another episode of the Self-Publishing Roundtable, the weekly self-publishing news webcast.
This week has been quiet one on the news front, so we are running with Simon Cantan winning the Last Author Standing competition as our lead story….
Na just kidding, we are covering the big news of what I like to call, Daddy Gate.
For those indies out there living under a rock, things hit the fan when UK distributor and High Street brand, WH Smith took their e-book store offline. They stated they were ‘disgusted’ with some of the erotica titles found on their site. WH Smith for those US viewers, are about the equivalent of Barnes & Noble. They take their e-titles from Kobo.
Things really got messy when the following message appeared on their site:
“Our website will become live again once all self published e-books have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available”
The titles brought to question were erotica featuring, incest (usually a step parent/child relationship) , rape and bestiality.
Then things really got crazy when as a result of the move, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo started removing self-published titles from their stores, not just erotica books.
There has been plenty of backlash and opinions, so I will share some of the main articles that have hit the net this week.
The original article – “An Epidemic of Filth”
BBC story on Amazon removing book
Story on Kobo’s official response
An interesting article on the subject, including a suggestion that indies may have to distance themselves from erotica authors.
In depth coverage from Ryancaseybooks.com
There are plenty more. We will be covering the story for a while, but we do have other interesting stories to get too, including:
Want Fries With That E-Book? – McDonalds joining the e-book party? Seems so. How long before Realm Keepers appears next to your Big Mac?
Michael Kozlowski is advocating that all online bookstores have devoted sections for self-publishing. Not necessarily for positive reasons.
Bloomsbury Seeks Deal With Author Solutions – Author solutions often gets bad press with indies. Bloomsbury (Harry Potter’s publisher) has seemingly signed a deal with them.
There is plenty more to cover if we have time, we look forward to seeing you Thursday night LIVE!
P.s. My joke aside, congratz to Simon for winning the Last Author Standing.
It’s quiet in here for a podcast day.
crissymossEveryone is resting until the show gets going, and then the comments will fly fast and furious.
Heya everyone.
Uh-Oh Carl angered our Google Overlords and is being punished for his transactions.
Tsk tsk. And I thought I’d be late.
What’s new guys?
Howdy all.
Evening everyone…interesting stories tonight by the looks of it
Eric Guindon Another week in Canada, how’s Eric?
Hey everyone! I’m actually not in the hangout tonight, but I wanted to come here and harass all of you. Instead, I will ridicule the hosts for not being able to get the hangout going on time.
OK, I’m here. We can get started now.
jlward Like a true gentleman.
Ok the post should be imbedded now.
Let’s get this party started.
xgranville Eric Guindon Similar actually đ You’re in Toronto, right? Ottawa here. At least our government doesn’t just shut down đ
Just refresh.
jlward Carl burned down the hang out. You should have been there to control him, John!
Eric Guindon xgranville Woah, I moved from Ottawa in September. We probably never crossed paths haha.
Hi, I’m in bed. Just wanted to pop in and say hello and I’m gonna miss you guys again. Cooking another human tends to be a tiring process… especially when it’s on a slow roast for nine months. đ I’m still fighting morning sickness… or as I like to call it “An hourly punch
xgranville Eric Guindon Weird eh? It’s sad that you moved away then.
Uh oh, I have a cat emergency. BRB.
Eric Guindon xgranville Yeah, man. As if.
Trish McCallan jlwardI take a week off… and this happens: http://waltons.steve-p.org/pix/44A_00185100.jpg
csjameson Take care of yourself!
Queue Garrett
csjameson Babies are delicious.
csjameson We’ll miss you cyndi!
Welcome back!
Hello everyone
I want to write a book entitled Ban This Book You Fucking Pussies!
Carl Sinclair Ello, Carl.
Someone is playing with their mic and it is making incredibly annoying noises.
gregorylynn Nope. That’s just Dave talking.
jlward gregorylynn I was transfixed.
Is the UK becoming more puritanical than the U.S.?
xgranville jlward gregorylynn I was transmorgified.
melissadonovan That would be scary
xgranville jlward gregorylynn Dave would appreciate my use of that term.
I honestly didn’t read up on this story, because I only have a couple shorts up there right now. But seems like Kobo is really great about working with self pubbers. I have to believe they’ll get this thing all worked out before my automobile-rotica title Dueced On Her Coup comes out.
jlward xgranville gregorylynn I was transluctantly demystificated.
It’s amazing that Smashwords has an adult filter but Amazon doesn’t.
Kids definitely shouldn’t see that stuff in search results. But at the same time, pulling every indie book didn’t seem like a reasonable solution.
melissadonovan very knee jerk.
Kobo has to show a no tolerance policy for this kind of thing. They are defending their business interests, and that’s only going to help indie authors at the end of the day. You don’t half step when it comes to kiddie porn.
As much as I adore Dave, I’d sure like to see everyone else when they’re speaking.
maryeihla I was looking at the messages. I didn’t even notice haha.
maryeihla Yeah what’s up with that? Dave’s presence is so commanding it has taken over the hangout entirely?
keithallenauthor maryeihla So powerful.
maryeihla I think Dave’s mic is making noise enough that it keeps him in the spotlight
maryeihla Whoever is hosting the hangout needs to unclick Dave’s avatar.
maryeihlaMary, if it helps, you could look at this picture of me: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-A1ta432Bsko/US6CsotYohI/AAAAAAAAKhE/VyJWvKbXIQU/s561-no/me2.jpg
I noticed a lot of talk on kboards about the “dungeon” is that the adult only section Crissy was talking about?
Daver is hosting the hangout
Thanks!
Carl Sinclair Daver Wr Wrightr
There was a similar uproar when YouTube started pulling down copyright infringing videos. That was also something that needed to be done in order to maintain the relationships that let the site continue to exist.
Nicholas Kahler Makes it a real pain in the ass to find old SNL skits though. đ
I refreshed and its fine now haha. Not that it wasn’t fine solely on Dave haha
People freak out way more about sex than they do about violence. Has anyone read Divergent or Hunger Games? Apparently teens can brutalize each other in books and movies but God forbid they are exposed to any bumping and grinding.
Did you raise your forehead, Carl?
maryeihla From the right angle it looks borderline mohawk-esque
keithallenauthor maryeihla Very Mad Max of you, Carl.
Self publishing will save civilization!
keithallenauthor Maybe that’s an Aussie mohawk.
maryeihla keithallenauthor I’m looking to play Max in the remake.
maryeihla keithallenauthor You call that a knife? This is a KNIFE!
Wasn’t it all started because it showed up in search of children’s books?
Carl Sinclair  Anyone would be better than Mel!
Tentacle rape, underage japanese girls… this show is on a whole different level tonight.
None of the books mentioned in the tabloid broke any laws. The girls in the book were eighteen, they were step-fathers and their were warnings of graphic sex and storylines that might bother people.
Nicholas Kahler Transcending realms and spacetime.
Lolita is one of my least favorite books ever. So boring.
melissadonovan I agree
Actually it happened to dad who had photos on his phone.
It’s not depicted in the show, but most of the female characters in Game of Thrones are underage.
Pretty sick stuff. Don’t they scan the titles before they let the books hit the store?
Nicholas Kahler That’s a valid point. It’s a fantasy world so is underage a different age?
Then what is Amazon doing while the book is “in review?”
keithallenauthor Nicholas Kahler Maybe… but they still changed that for the mass market on the show. Which says something about the nature of the content.
I think Juliet was 14. Her and Romeo did the deed.
FSG wasn’t pulled, neither was Beautiful Disaster, or any of the other erotica that was original self-pubbed and went traditions.
melissadonovan Scandalous!
fahrenheit 451?
keithallenauthor Ray Bradbury = genius.
melissadonovan keithallenauthor Gone but not forgotten…brilliant, brilliant man
Naughty Daughter Pounded by Daddy’s Cock was a classic!
I remember when my daughters were teens and reading V.C. Andrews books. At the time, I had no idea these books were about incest.
I wonder if the NSA is tracking those authors.
melissadonovan or us….right now. Are they standing right behind me?
melissadonovan I think they track everyone who comments on this podcast.
Dave is living in a time loop? Didn’t Carl read that comment earlier?
maryeihla melissadonovan They’ll never catch me…
keithallenauthor melissadonovan They’re parked in a van across the street from my house.
Just arrived! Party can start now.
GarrettRobinson about time. Amazingly, you’ve only been brought up once so far. Sorry to disappoint.
GarrettRobinson You missed a lot of the commotion.
melissadonovan No, that’s Garrett Robinson.
GarrettRobinson Just in time for the RK references.
keithallenauthor GarrettRobinson Only once? We’ll fix that, don’t worry đ
Blasphemy!
I think what will happen though is that it’s going to be so hard for erotica authors to make a living by going Indie because of all the filters on them, that most will try to sell to traditional publishers. And the traditional houses will become the distributors of erotica. Just think the gatekeepers of erotica. đ
Wait, isn’t this episode about naughty erotica?
crissymoss keithallenauthor GarrettRobinson I would hope so….There is a rumor that Calvin’s mom is a cougar stalking prey in RK…maybe go with that.
melissadonovan Most definitely.
Isn’t Simon Cantan supposed to be on for winning LAS?
Hm…this is a great idea.
melissadonovan Yeah!
Because when one considers great literary tomes, how can McDonald’s not come to mind?
If their ebooks are anywhere close in quality to their food, they’ll give you cancer.
melissadonovan LOL
Trish McCallan I think the more extreme stuff, probably, but if they are letting Lexi be then maybe they won’t remove all of it. Just the “extreme” stuff.
melissadonovan In the first one Hamburglar and Grimace spread some special sauce…  Oh wait we moved on
only 117 comments so far?
billdowis Garrett was late.
billdowis Haters gonna hate.
Sorry I’m on my phone. Hampering my ability.
GarrettRobinson We already plugged you. Sorry.
billdowis Is there a goal? I can chatter more. I’m trying to show some self-restraint.
Giggity.
GarrettRobinson And we’re back.
Carl, you’re muttering.
GarrettRobinson Shush
Only if it had a direct to existing device method
Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson It’s okay. You know who else mutters? Michael Stipe.
GarrettRobinson He misunderstood my comment last week about his low, sexy voice.
You know who else muttered? Hitler.
GarrettRobinson Did he have a low, sexy voice too?
Translation: David Wright hates his customers.
Muttermuttermuttermutter INDIE MARKET muttermuttermutter
Crissy Amazon has put filters on tons of erotica, if you do a search now you only get books with sanitized titles and covers. Dozens of authors including Lexi’s sales have plummeted. They aren’t getting the visibility or the sales. None of Lexi’s titles come up. None of the more sexual titles come up. Lexi’s ranks have dropped from the 100-200K to 500K and worse in the last couple weeks. Unless you do a direct search by the authors name, you won’t find them.
GarrettRobinson Can we delete garrett?
preying on the insecurities of others…like the 700 club
keithallenauthor OMG don’t get me started on that nonsense.
Better men have tried. No women though. Crissy can try. Crissy can try any time she wants. *wiggles hips*
Or Hitler.
Plus- traditional houses won’t take extreme porn, they are too careful for that. The stuff they sell is sanitized erotica.
I remember the days when Author Solutions was the only solution. Thanks god those days are gone, and there are communities of indie authors who help each other out.
GarrettRobinson You have a thing for Hitler, don’t you? Come on, admit it.
Who doesn’t?
GarrettRobinson The Jewish….Heyyy-Yoooooo
Crissy had a story about muttermutter
GarrettRobinson Who took the jam out of your donut?
keithallenauthor GarrettRobinson That would be me. 1/4 of me anyway.
melissadonovan keithallenauthor GarrettRobinson Define THING for Hitler.
Dave, you’d be huge in Palm Springs. Â Bears are the thing here.
Sorry, I’m watching on my phone this week so it’s quite hard to hear.
Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson Canada took the good jam.
Carl Sinclair I think someone starched his shorts.
Same with music. Kids who learn music do better in everything.
RemarkableReads Bears are the thing everywhere.
Wade, you keep edumacating them kidz
Me, too, Dave, but I always did well on the “story problems.”
melissadonovan Been a musician for a decade. It sooo helps.
Here little johnny read this and leave a five star review on Amazon…or you Fail
Here’s a thread about the mass pulling of erotica on Amazon and the effects of the new filters.Â
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,163390.0.html
xgranville melissadonovan I played the flute. And NO, I never went to band camp.
What do you play?
The Swiss Family Bolger?
melissadonovan Several instruments, I dabble in a lot, but keys and guitar are my Will Forte.
Shout out to moi, ahhh thank you, Carl Sinclair
xgranville melissadonovan Guitar’s tough. I play off and on. I want to learn banjo.
melissadonovan xgranville Banjo is pretty easy if you get guitar somewhat down
I have to go exercise after this. Hangout, maybe next week. I still need to learn how to use it.
Promote Crissy’s new book!
Yeah, talk about Crissy’s book!
Does Carl have a book?
What up, all?
Carl, when are you releasing your book man?
keithallenauthor I have plenty. Would you like a copy
Hey, Carl’s got a new book out, right? Oh, wait.
Crissy looks great in white. Just saying…
GarrettRobinson Just because I choose not to throw up a book until it’s finished, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been written. Plenty of people have read it in various stages of beta.
BuddyGott Whhere were you, sir?
See y’all on G+! Wow, that was abrupt.
melissadonovan That’s what she said?
Who wants an invite?
Why the hell haven’t you invited me to beta read? I’m insulted.
Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson I could write a 30,000 parody of your show before you publish that book
xgranville BuddyGott Damned boss made me work. He doesn’t understand the importance of SPRT!
xgranville melissadonovan Guitar is really hard for me. But I can play a few songs.
BuddyGott Say it again. Just in case.
BuddyGott Only… slower.
melissadonovan Hi and bye, Melissa.
RemarkableReads Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson Which nobody would read đ
melissadonovan xgranville Calluses are the trick. Gotta bleed a couple times haha
BuddyGott melissadonovan Hi and bye!
RemarkableReads GarrettRobinson I’m finishing 6 books in a series at once, all of which are written.
Carl Sinclair Me, please.
xgranville melissadonovan For me it’s the barre chords.
Carl Sinclair I’m around.
Carl Sinclair RemarkableReads GarrettRobinson Does that mean you didn’t like my parody?  You and Crissy were the only ones I didn’t hear back from
melissadonovan xgranville It’s all about the thumb.
Carl Sinclair No thanks. It’s closing time. End of line for me.
Nicholas Kahler Carl Sinclair Great 90’s song. Just sayin.
RemarkableReads Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson I re-tweeted it and read it.
xgranville Nicholas Kahler Carl Sinclair You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
Carl Sinclair invite me
Great show this week!
RemarkableReads Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson Haha I read the parody. I thought it was pretty funny
Invites sent
Carl Sinclair keithallenauthor I would indeed.
Carl Sinclair RemarkableReads GarrettRobinson Well, when your book series is ready to go, I’ll bet it will be great.  Is it humor?  straight up sci fi?  fantasy?
xgranville RemarkableReads Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson thanks.  the Dave “character” was my favorite to write
Carl Sinclair where is mine?
RemarkableReads Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson The first series is Urban Fantasy. The rest are Epic, other than one is a Sci Fi thriller.
crissymoss Carl Sinclair sorry I missed you asking.
Carl Sinclair RemarkableReads GarrettRobinson so is your plan to release 2000 pages worth of material all at once?
RemarkableReads Carl Sinclair GarrettRobinson No. But I wanted the entire series (the first one) finished, so I wasn’t regretting things I didn’t add in or wanted to change later. I’ll be doing that per series. There is plenty going on.
I do have another book coming out shortly. Just finishing that up at the moment. That is a stand-a-lone with another author.
GarrettRobinson You never asked? You know I love you Garrett.
Carl Sinclair  Look forward to it.  All the best.
Carl Sinclair crissymoss Is it too late to ask for a hangout invite?  remarkableread@gmail.com
RemarkableReads Carl Sinclair crissymoss Yeah it’s fine. I’ll invite you now.
RemarkableReads Carl Sinclair crissymoss sent
http://www.amazon.com/Forged-Red-Hot-SEALs-Novel-ebook/dp/B007X4TP8O/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1382067998&sr=1-1&keywords=forged+in+fire
keithallenauthor Carl Sinclair send me your email address.