Amazon accused of censoring erotic fiction by 'hiding' titles so they don't show up on searches



Erotica authors claim site is making it harder for readers to find their titles

Say 'censorship' is threatening their sales and narrowing readers' choices

Unfair: Bestselling erotica author Selena Kitt has accused Amazon of 'corporate censorship'

Amazon has been accused of 'corporate censorship' by erotic fiction writers who claim the internet giant is 'secretly' making it harder for fans to find adult books on the site.

Erotica authors have hit out at Amazon - the world's largest online retailer - claiming it is affecting their income and narrowing readers' choices by flagging and filtering adult titles so they don't show up in a basic search on Amazon.com.



The website is threatening authors' livelihood and 'punishing' erotica fans by 'arbitrarily' filtering content, writers have said.

Erotic fiction writer Selena Kitt, the best-selling author of titles like EcoErotica, Confessions, and Back to the Garden, said in a blog post: 'Everytime one of these corporations decides to change the rules (again) without telling publishers (again) what or what isn't acceptable in their venue, they take food off my table.

'Yes corporations can sell what they like... but they should then have the cajones to tell publishers and authors what is or isn't okay with them,' she said, before going on to describe how her book Girls Only: Pool Party - which features two scantily clad women embracing on the cover - was excluded by Amazon from its 'all department' search.

The 'adult' flag imposed by Amazon meant readers would have to search within the 'books' category or via its specific title in order to find it, the American author said.

Ms Kitt managed to persuade Amazon to remove the filter after highlighting the fact that another book, by a different author - which featured a man and a woman rather than two women in a similar state of undress and similar position - was not subject to the same flag.

'Arbitrary': Erotica authors have claimed Amazon.com has introduced a filter preventing some adult titles from showing up in its 'all departments' search

'But most authors don't have the same 'clout' that I do,' said Ms Kitt, who argued that writers were left to 'guess' what content would avoid censorship while Amazon and other booksellers reserved the right to 'arbitrarily refuse one book, but not another'.

Another blog post by writer M. Keep said: 'Corporate censorship by Amazon hurts authors, but it hurts readers as well,' adding that the online retailer 'doesn't want to be seen as "supporting" erotica'.

The author also questioned why the some 100,000 erotica titles available on Amazon.com are not divided into sub-categories in the same way as other genres of fiction, like poetry or mythology and folklore.

'Why not introduce sub-genres and let people who want BDSM find it easily?' M. Keep wrote.



'Even giving the genre sub-genre categories, like they do with romance, is seen as supporting the filthy, dirty things we write about.'

Popular: Ms Kitt has sold more than a million of her erotic e-books (left), while E L James' erotic novel 50 Shades of Grey (right) has topped best-seller lists around the world



Another author told a Daily Telegraph blogger writing about the apparent new filters: 'We sell a huge amount of books through Amazon, yet we're treated with utter contempt. We aren't even allowed to classify our books.'

Amazon is yet to respond to MailOnline's requests for comment.

Last month it emerged how amateur erotica writers are using self-publishing systems available on websites like Amazon to get their salacious material to the masses without the need for a publisher or agent.