Trapped into the Adult Dungeon

Sounds kinky, doesn't it?
But it's not.

It's weird when you find out one of your ebooks has been sent to the Adult Dungeon by some Amazon reviewer, and you can't remember what the heck you wrote in it that's so outrageous.

So I went and re-read Refractions: Beginnings, which is the book that was flagged and damned.

In case you don't know, the Adult Dungeon is not a place where you get whipped if that's your thing. No, it's an Amazon set-up of their catalogue, that basically means the incriminated ebook won't show up in searches, won't be suggested and basically, unless you provide a direct link to it on your blog, people won't be able to find it. Not anymore.

Unless you change what's wrong with it, and the point is, you don't know what's wrong with it in the first place because they don't tell you. They just blacklist your ebook.

So, I started having doubts because five days ago my sales plummeted. I mean, like, I lost 75% of my ebook sales, and 100% of my Kindle Unlimited readings.

And my latest ebook has now been "in review" for over 72 hours, which is more than I ever experienced.

So all of a sudden the words ADULT DUNGEON blazed through my mind, in red, and I did a little check and yes, all of my stories are labeled as "SAFE" (is this a compliment? For a writer of smut? I'm not sure), but The Prism is listed as "ADULT", and therefore is in the dungeon.

I wonder what will happen now.

For certain, after going through Refractions: Beginnings today as I dined, I still wonder what's different from other stories. I think I wrote and published much racier stuff.

Fuck, I am writing much racier stuff now, and I guess I won't be able to publish it.

The fact that it all depends on the subjective evaluation of a single Amazon "quality control guy" makes this all very uncertain. And I'm worried about the ebook trapped in limbo, and the others I've here in various phases of completion. And the dramatic drop in sales (yes, I'm greedy and I've a lot of costly vices).

Bummer, I say! Bummer!

Oh, and in the meantime, I'm trying to imagine what "safe erotica" is supposed to be.

UPDATE: As I was writing this, I asked a few friends and you know what? 

It might all be about nipples.

If you watch close enough, you might notice that the girl's silhouette on the book cover shows the girl has (gosh!) nipples!!
Of the stiff sort.
It might be just that, really: Amazon apparently has a thing about nipples.

And OK, I have a thing about nipples too, but not in the same way Amazon has, apparently.

"Get a nipple-free cover," my friend Rick said. "And then consider moving to Smashwords."

All of which also means that "safe erotica" means "smut without nipples", so now you know. Happy?