I hope my corrupting influence will be unleashed on the unwary but willing fans of my stories ASAP.
Meanwhile, Eugene mentioned butchering my work.
I still don't see it as butchering, more like an exercise in refining and improving my skill as a writer: I need to suggest what I cannot show.
Am I any good at it?
Well, if nothing else, I try harder.
BUT, Amazon is getting more prudish by the day.
I did a quick search to see if any of the themes in my story are absolute no-nos.
I read the guidelines, and no, there is no sex with minors and no sex with real living animals; as we know, sex with imaginary or extinct animals is all right on Amazon - so why fuck a donkey when you could fuck a unicorn?
(yeah, I know, I'm classier than that but... just sayin')
Other topics... lesbian sex is not a problem.
Threesomes are not a problem.
Generic randyness and screwing around are not a problem.
Oral and anal are not problems.
Sex toys? Bring them on.
Drugs? You gotta be kidding.
Incest... ah, this is the one that worries me, but Amazon carries a lot of incest erotica, so it appears not to be a problem either.
So, the question is: Why me?
Anyway, we are still in the Review phase.
As far as I know, Everything That Is Unholy will be released soon.
And I am planning future stories and thinking of ways I could mess up Amazon's filters.
There is this Japanese practice, you see, in which two lovers bring each other to orgasm without even touching, while sitting on opposed sides of the same room.
Kinky as fuck.
I might try something similar: a dirty story in which all the dirty bits are suggested, and happen off-screen.
THAT would be a challenge!
>I need to suggest what I cannot show.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably the overall intention of the censoring algorithms Amazon employs and it lowers the intensity of the story, because you can't get as explicit as you want with it. I don't know if it's possible to structure the sentences differently or to use different words or what to make the story pass through amazon's filters, but if you manage to do it, that would be more a sign of how well you understand what amazon likes and doesn't rather than a sign of how good of a writer you are (you're very good, btw).
I have noticed a change in Amazon's standards. Can't say exactly when it happened, but it has within the last year or so. It used to be that incest was out. The way around it was to have step parents have sex with step child(ren). Somehow not being biologically related made it within Amazon's norms. But I have noticed several books recently that were published in the last year or so that are clearly tales of incest: mother/son, father/daughter. I am sure that Amazon made no public announcement about the change to their standards, but it is currently their norm.
ReplyDelete