Draft2Digital has just rolled out distribution through Bookshop.org, which means a bunch of my books are now available on Bookshop. However, it looks like Bookshop is blocking distribution for titles that are under a certain length. My short stories haven’t made it onto the site; neither have any of the Saintstown books, nor the first Casefile of Jay Moriarty book.
Some other writers are also reporting that their erotica books were blocked from distribution through Bookshop. According to Draft2Digital, this isn’t a blanket ban; they claim “additional safeguards” are needed before erotica can be sold on Bookshop, and that “support is coming soon.” I can only assume these “safeguards” will include age verification, which presents its own issues.
It would certainly be a wild choice for Bookshop to suddenly ban sex books, considering how hard they’re riding the Heated Rivalry hype wave. I’ve seen other platforms try to thread the needle between romance and erotica by claiming erotica is “for the purpose of titillation/arousing sexual desire,” and meanwhile romance … isn’t, I guess? I think BookTok would disagree with that assessment.
And also, as I’ve pointed out before, who gets final say over the “purpose” of a piece of art? Who gets to decide whether I’m a pornographer? And why is a pornographer such a terrible thing to be?
I suspect this tension between a publishing industry going all-in on “spicy” romance and a retail industry desperate to crack down on any and all “adult” content will come to a head sooner rather than later.
Preorder: “A Reckoning in Whitehall”
Jason Collier is on his way up in the world. Wealthy and well-educated, he’s translated a successful business career overseas into a parliament seat at home in Britain. His marriage to one of the world’s most powerful tech executives has made him a key asset to the government. It is, in light of all this success, of little concern to anyone who matters that Collier has left a trail of violated and abused victims behind him.
Jay Moriarty certainly isn’t anyone who matters — but twenty years ago, Jason Collier hurt a boy named Sebastian Moran. For that, Moriarty is going to destroy him.
The tenth story in The Casefile of Jay Moriarty, titled “A Reckoning in Whitehall,” comes out on February 16.
Additionally, Ko-fi supporters who subscribe at the Early Access tier ($5 CAD/month) can download the book for free, right now.
This Week’s Links
Al Fayed’s victims say compensation scheme ignores ‘trafficking’ by Harrods
The women have accused the company of “trafficking” them, claiming they were hired for legitimate shop-floor positions and then transferred into non-existent office roles created solely to deliver them to Al Fayed. They believe this process involved dozens of other members of Harrods staff, including those in senior roles, who enabled and were complicit in their abuse.
Body composition and physical fitness in transgender versus cisgender individuals: a systematic review with meta-analysis
While transgender women exhibited higher lean mass than cisgender women, their physical fitness was comparable. Current evidence is mostly low certainty and has heterogenous quality but does not support theories of inherent athletic advantages for transgender women over cisgender.
gradient.horse
It’s been a heavy one this week. Go draw a horse.
It looks like Discord is also rolling out age verification worldwide. They have already leaked age verification data at least once. Do not give Discord your ID.
-K
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