Bitter Confessions banned on Amazon India
Since the release of Bitter Confessions on September 30, I’ve had readers in India telling me that the book wasn’t available on Amazon. I assumed there was some delay/glitch and filed two tickets within the past week and finally received this explanation on October 8:
“After investigation, we have found your book contains sexually explicit images or title language. Books with sexually explicit content will not surface in general product searches.”
This didn’t sound too bad. His explanation made it sound like it was still on the store. Thankfully, I decided not to take his word for it and tried to search for Bitter Confessions to give readers the link. It took me less than a minute to realize that the book still wasn’t available. I also spotted this:
I pressed for clarification that I am actually banned and this was their response:
“After consulting with our tech team I can confirm that since we found that it has Adult Content the book will not be available for purchase in India.”
I really don’t like how they handled this. First, they could have informed me that my book was blocked. Instead, I was informed by aggravated readers. Second, they tried to placate me that it was just shadow banned instead of admitting that it had never been released in this country and they had no intention of doing so.
I’ve been seeing a lot of horror stories about Amazon lately—of authors getting banned without explanation, preorders being canceled… all sorts of things. My incident is minor in comparison. I am grateful that it’s still available in other countries but I’m very aware that can change in an instant.
When I posted this on social media, other readers came forward to tell me that the paperbacks have been removed from the Amazon website in France as well. This is why I can't afford to be in Kindle Unlimited and am on every retailer I can be. So far, Bitter Heat has been banned from Barnes&Noble and now this is the first Amazon channel to ban another book in the series. Bitter Confessions is still available on every other retailer I could get it on: Apple, Google Play, Kobo... You can also find it on Eden Books or you can buy direct from me. Also, the full book + snippets of book 4 & Roth's book is posted on Ream Stories.
Ironically, in this book I talk about an author that Jasmine follows being blocked from retailers and having readers rally around her. I also briefly touch on censorship and how I believe art should be a safe place for us to explore the darker parts of our psyche instead of indulging in these things in real life. I also feel that books in particular are more heavily censored than movies and music (this could just be because this is my industry), but I’ve never heard of an artist being booted from Spotify or iTunes for what their song is about. I would think movies would be the most censored because visuals can be conveyed in a nanosecond vs books take time, concentration, and effort to process. Same with music videos but those seem to have no rules at all.
I know that Willow Winters channel was banned from YouTube because she posted her audiobooks for her readers to enjoy and YouTube apparently doesn’t allow anything with “sexual gratification.” Doesn’t that mean that every movie that contains a sex scene would also be included as having “sexual gratification” in it? And how many songs describe sexual acts and… OMG I can’t go on this tangent because it’ll go on forever. I really feel like romance in particular is being targeted but I haven’t heard of a horror writer being banned for having too many descriptive torture/murder scenes in their books… Make it make sense, please. The weirdest part about this is, my Crime Lord Series which has SA, violence, and murder is available everywhere and I’ve never had an issue, yet my Singed Series from the very start was banned from book 1.
Anyway, because of these recent events, I’m going to gradually be moving my paperbacks to IngramSpark for wider distribution so that Amazon doesn’t have the final say in whether my books end up in certain countries. I’m also committed to publishing wide so I’m not crippled when certain retailers deem that my work is unacceptable. I just wanted to raise awareness on this issue or if you aren’t able to find my books on certain retailers in future, please try another one.
Thank you to everyone willing to buy direct or through other sales channels. Huge shout out to those who support me through Patreon or Ream! Your contributions matter so much. Also, to everyone who leaves reviews and recommends my work to others—I love you from the bottom of my cold, dark heart. LMAO. I wouldn't be able to do this without your collective help so thank you, thank you!
Love,
Mia