Some of you may have heard about Amazon pulling incest-related erotica. So, I've been reading a lot of the uproar and there is a string or whatever you call it on Twitter with the hash tag #amazoncensors.
I won't lie, this could affect me with my titles like Uncle Ed's Lap and the upcoming Father's Keeper. UEL is 'incest' in so far as it is a younger woman falling for her older widowed uncle (by marriage) and Father's Keeper is a long buried crush on a stepfather that emerges in adulthood and turns to an affair. Both are technically incest, in my understanding, so I guess theoretically, they too could disappear from Amazon at any moment (well, not FK as it's not there yet).
Selena Kitt blogs about this much more eloquently than I am managing right now on TSPR site and it's been covered on several sites including Teleread and Slashdot. Read up and weigh in if you feel they've gone too far.
I can say this, I've read graphic rape/murder/torture etc scenes or full chapters about gory serial killer murders and basically step by step instructions on how to commit a horrible crime that bother me way more than a grown man deciding he wants to have an affair with his step mom. Either way, if you feel the urge to speak up, join the Twitter stream, contact Amazon and have your voice heard, blog it, whatever you feel is right. Because without us (the customer) there is no Amazon. If enough people speak up, maybe they'll stop picking and choosing at random what is 'appropriate' and what is not. If there is going to be a morals code, it needs to be clear, concise and listed for all to read, understand and FOLLOW.
[Parker]
