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This week: Ebook Publisher Issues Edited by: Jeff  
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"Some writers enjoy writing, I am told. Not me. I enjoy having written.
-- George R.R. Martin
Trivia of the Week: Between January 2012 and March 2013, ebook sales accounted for between 17% and 31.5% of all book sales in the United States each month. On average, ebook sales accounted for 23% of the market over those fourteen months.
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| ASIN: B083RZ37SZ |
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Amazon's Price: Price N/A
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EBOOK PUBLISHER ISSUES
A couple months back, there was a bit of an uproar over objectionable ebooks found on the websites of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other ebook retailers. Without getting into the actual content of those books (they weren't e-rated, that's for sure!), the end result was the mass-deletion of many self-published ebooks in that genre, as well as many books that contained titles with similar words even if they weren't actually in the genre(s) in question. The reason for these deletions was because many of these publishers would just do a keyword search and delete all of the results without verifying the content, since they were acting quickly in response to public outrage at the idea that they allowed objectionable material to be published on their sites. British publisher WHSmith even went so far as to shut down their entire ebook website while they investigated the issue.
This isn't the first time ebook writers have had problems with their publishers, either. In 2009, Amazon incorrectly labeled over 57,000 ebooks with gay and lesbian themes as "adult" material (even though they didn't contain any graphic material), which removed them from the public listings and search results that many ebook consumers use to browse for new material. Many authors in adult genres such as erotica or graphic horror (which are both legally permissible forms of writing) have found their ebook offerings simply deleted or missing from the publisher's online catalog after complaints from consumer watch-dog groups.
These issues with ebook publishers bring up a couple of concerns that I think apply to everyone, not just those who write in fringe categories that are routinely the subject of scrutiny:
Choose your title and book description carefully. If ebook publishers do keyword searches in an effort to eliminate what they view as objectionable material quickly and efficiently, having certain words in your title may cause it to be flagged and removed, even if the content of your material isn't questionable in any way. If your title or searchable description has words in it that could be considered objectionable but are still within a site's parameters for public listing, make sure you...
Keep an eye on your books. If you do publish something online, check in on it regularly. Make sure it's properly categorized, properly listed, and able to be found in an easy and convenient way. Not every site notifies you when they change something or remove it, so regularly checking on your items is essential to still make sure everything is where it's supposed to be. This will allow you to be swift and responsive in the event of any issues, so that you can address it immediately rather than having your writing mislabeled or removed from the site for days, weeks, or even months before it's noticed.
Keep an eye on publishing news. It's important to keep up on news about the publishing industry, especially when it comes to public outrage about an issue. If there's an uproar about "inappropriate" material on Amazon and you've got a book on Amazon, it would likely be beneficial to keep an eye on your Amazon-hosted books and make sure that they don't become an unfortunate casualty of a publisher's eagerness to satisfy an angry mob.
Our society, for better or worse, is in the midst of a reactionary attitude where publishers, retailers, service providers, and other customer-based companies are striving to quickly and decisively avoid any accusations of impropriety. Unfortunately, not every accusation is based on the truth (or the law) and companies are sometimes put in the position of either confronting or appeasing loudly-complaining consumer groups even when they're not necessarily in the right.
As writers (and this is especially true if you self-publish), part of our job is taking responsibility for managing our work. And that doesn't just stop with the words "The End" on the manuscript. It includes marketing yourself and monitoring your online presence. Part of that marketing and monitoring needs to be making sure that the places offering your work for sale continue to offer it in an appropriate and accessible way. I worked at Borders for several years in college and we were constantly dealing with corporate marketers, publishers, and even some authors coming into our stores to make sure this or that particular book was appropriately displayed in the store. To make sure the new Stephen King book had its own table in the very front... or that the new paperback release of a bestseller was on an endcap at the end of a row... or that a photography book with a risque cover was actually placed in the Photography section and not the Sexuality/Erotica section on the other side of the store.
In an increasingly-digital world, I can only hope that writers take their online presence as seriously as people once took the physical placement of physical book copies in brick-and-mortar stores. Make sure that you know exactly what to expect from any publisher or retailer in terms of how your work will be sold... and then make sure you keep track of your work and quickly address any problems that may arise. Because you never know; catching that accidental deletion because of a common search keyword or that accidental click of a mouse that categorized your book as adult/explicit rather than in its proper category may be the difference in quite a few potential extra copies sold if the problem sits unresolved for weeks and weeks at a time.
Good luck to all of you in your pursuit of getting published and finding your audience! 
Until next time,
-- Jeff
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I encourage you to check out the following Writing.Com items:
While comparing prices on Amazon and Play, I noticed that Amazon offered a digital version of The Enchantress, and it was cheaper than the paper version. The added bonus, it would be delivered to my tablet computer instantly. I was sold. Never again would I need to worry about different release dates, not being able to get to the shopping centre, books being out of stock, or dodgy delivery times.
Although all authors need to promote their books on their own to a certain extent, I find this particularly true for those published by small presses and self-publishers. It also seems true that we have to work twice as hard to get our names out there.
What's wrong with small publishing houses? Actually, nothing. Publishing is great no mater how it is done and there are plenty of different ways for writers to get their work in print. I have two books published with a small publishing house- so, I thought I'd give you a little insight into the small publisher's world.
This report is after 2 weeks research. In this report I will talk about the publishing services in the internet, including journal publishing. In fact the publishing issue was of special interest for me, because I wanted to find some way to publish my articles, and if possible sell them through internet. So, it was important for me to make special research in this area. What I found that there is bulk number of publishing providers in the net, and it was not easy to find really free one.
Although I was a lowly temp in publicity at both Viking and Putnam during 1996, I did learn something about the classes of rejection letters that editors may send. I hope this will help prospective writers have a better understanding of what a rejection letter might mean. When reading this, keep in mind that any unsolicited manuscript sent to a major house is likely to not even receive a rejection letter, but a post-it reading: Dear author: We are unable to review or consider unagented manuscripts. You can find agents listed in the Literary Market Place at your local library. Let's say that an editor or editorial assistant did send you a rejection letter. To my knowledge, there are three types.
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Feedback on my last newsletter about the benefits of writing groups:
monty31802 writes, "Choose to get this newsletter but seldom respond. I would disagree if I thought the Author was wrong. You did a fine job on this write (Newsletter)"
I'm honored by your response, and happy to hear that you also happen to agree!
ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy  writes, "I agree with what you've said about groups. For me, Writing.com is my writing group. I was stumbling with writing a story with dialog when I found WDC and have learned so much from the writers here. I find we tend to group ourselves even without making it formal where we interact with the same writers over and over again. I credit WDC for my success in writing stories which other people are buying on kindle and Amazon worldwide. WDC is a wonderful group of subgroups. Thanks for your newsletter. I appreciate learning and getting new ideas. ann"
Thanks for the feedback. And I agree; Writing.Com is one of the best writing groups around! 
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For Authors: December 25, 2013 Issue [#6064]
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