May 5th, 2011 The Babes
Our friend Jennifer LeBlanc, at The Yaoi Review brought this tour our attention.
“It appears the Amazon KINDLE has changed its Terms and Conditions to ban explicit images from being published on the KINDLE (See EDIT below for exact terminology). This issue started last month when Yaoi Press had a few of their titles, both manga and prose, pulled from the KINDLE with no explanation other than they were in direct violation of their Terms and Conditions. Yaoi Press’s founder Yamila Abraham has stated they will now have to change their explicit images on their prose titles to more ‘romantic’ images that will be acceptable to KINDLE.
Today Digital Manga has announced they too have had some of their 801 Media titles pulled, including Weekend Lovers and King of Debt. However, it appears this will also affect June Manga as KINDLE has rejected The Selfish Demon King and has banned The Color of Love. Unfortunately since these are manga and not prose like Yaoi Press’s titles, there is no way to alter the images to meet KINDLE’s Terms and Conditions.
I took a peek at Libre’s direct from Japan KINDLE releases but have not noticed any titles that are missing as of yet. That being said, I expect with some of the explicit Ayano Yamane and Youka Nitta titles they have that it is only a matter of time. My recommendation is to grab what you can get now before it is gone. The good thing with the KINDLE is that once you own it, it’s yours to keep. You also do not need to own a KINDLE to read their titles. You can use any number of their software apps to read them including KINDLE Desktop for both the PC and Mac.
I guess now we will just need to wait and see if Borders’ KOBO or Barnes & Noble’s NOOK will follow suit.
EDIT: To find where it specifies what content is acceptable, you need to actually look at their Content Guidelines. Very top items says Pornography with the following: “Pornography and hard-core material that depicts graphic sexual acts.” To further cover themselves, they have also added: Offensive Material: What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect. Amazon Digital Services, Inc. reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of Titles sold on our site.
EDIT #2: While perusing Amazon’s KINDLE erotica stories, I found this little gem: No Holes Barred. It boasts: “51 full-color, high-resolution images! Warning: Full-frontal and full-rear female nudity. For adults only.”
EDIT #3: Thank you to Meichell for posting a response received from Amazon and GLAAD in comments below.
If you are unhappy with Amazon’s decisions, please let them know! Join our Call to Action by emailing Amazon and letting them know how you feel. “
Now, we’re hoping that Amazon will come to their senses, and this will be a repeat of the mess that happened back in 2009 (The Internet Was Made For Wank) when Amazon removed the sales ranking for many GBLT books.
But, it looks like it’s not going to be that simple this time.
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June 23rd, 2010 The Babes
Robert, over at Robert’s Anime Corner Blog, reports that Media Blasters has canceled some upcoming titles, including some BL titles:
“Media Blasters sent over a notice today with some date changes and cancellations. Fortunately, none of the date changes effected any of their Anime titles, but they did cancel the release of the following manga:
Akihabara Vol. 6 Graphic Novel AWNOV-0949 (9781598835342)
Gay’s Anatomy Episode 0: Graphic Novel KGNOV-0914 (9781598834604)
Drawn to Him: Graphic Novel KGNOV-0917 (9781598835083)
They didn’t actually say ‘canceled’, but cited these as ‘removed from our schedule indefinitely’ and canceled all retailer pre-orders for them.”
We’re kind of sad about Gay’s Anatomy. It was kind of charming, in a greatly cheesy way.
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April 30th, 2010 The Babes
We here at BND had the honor of interviewing Tina Anderson! Ms. Anderson has been active in BL publishing since 2005. Her latest release for Kindle, Loud Snow, is available now! You can also read Nikita’s review of Loud Snow here!
Why did you want to write Loud Snow?
I don’t know if I can say I wanted to write it. Hm, that sounds bad, doesn’t it? At the time I was kicking around something new for a publisher–unaware that the company wasn’t in any real financial shape to take on more material–and was told to write something ‘romantic’ and ‘funny.’ After gagging and taking some Advil, I settled down on the couch and decided not to do it. Romantic comedy just isn’t my thing, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that ‘challenges’ were my sort of thing. I looked at writing a romantic comedy as a challenge.
What makes romantic comedy such a challenge?
I’m not a romantic person. 0_0 To be honest, I’m not much of a sexual person either, but that’s been changing lately. I went through this massive dry spell where my private parts just went on hiatus and I lost my passion. Oddly enough, it started after I had my kids, but then I found yaoi comics, fiction, fandom–it gave my brain a way to be sexual but not my body. I’m hitting the big 4-0 soon and I’ve noticed changes. I actually give a damn about doing it these days.
TMI aside, I have a difficult time writing romance and, for the past year or so, have been uninterested in writing sex. I’m truly hoping it’s not some sort of evil catch-22 in that once I start having sex again, I lose my chops for writing it. =_=;
In Loud Snow’s afterword, you mention you were inspired by a TV special on orca. How many of your plots grow from something as mundane as a TV special or magazine article?
Oh, so many plots come from the mundane! ^_^ Games with Me and Gadarene come from a night of watching “The Irish in America” and then seeing an HBO teaser for “From Hell.” I was perpetually stuck in the 1870s for about three weeks. I wrote six plots and only two of them were developed into anything worth selling.
How do you pick which artist to collaborate with for a particular story?
Once upon a time, I used to know them and we were friends. LOL! The business has a funny way of putting itself in the middle of friendships. After my relationship with Caroline Monaco soured (we worked together on a lot of doujinshi before Only Words), I decided I wouldn’t work with friends anymore. I thought, I’ll just work with acquaintances that have the same goals as me or complete strangers on commission.
One acquaintance that turned out well was Lynsley Brito. I met her while working on Roulette with Laura Carboni–another excellent acquaintance I adore and am glad to work with. I worked with MT Copyright for Whore of Turfan–not knowing her well, I paid her by the page. She was wonderful and always got her work done. I loved watching her skills with sequential storytelling grow while working on the series.
I broke my own rule last year and created Loud Snow with a friend of mine, Amelie Belcher. I prayed Loud Snow wouldn’t hurt the friendship. It’s finished and selling and we still talk on the phone–so far, so good. *knocks on wood*
What is your next project?
That’s a good question! Since taking a job outside of comics, I haven’t had much time to start anything new. Loud Snow in print release in July (pre-orders here if interested!**). I did set aside time this summer to work on a novel collaboration with c.b. Potts–sadly, it’s not GloBL nor gay-themed. I’ve taken on the role of executive editor for RUSH magazine, which I’ll go in to more detail at San Japan this July.
2011 will finally see the print releases of my German titles. The company in Germany merged with another and the schedules for both companies were combined, knocking my release dates back a peg. ^_- Never fear though, they’re coming.
Any advice for BL writers/illustrators who want to be published?
Publish it yourself. Let me tell you why: I loved what I was doing more when I was doing it myself. Getting together online with friends and releasing digital stuff is great. A few years ago, it was all about the print books, so we got together, did our thing and sold our print copies.
If you’re looking to create original material, honestly, do it yourself. It doesn’t cost a thing to prepare your work for Kindle, eManga.com, or even DLSite English Side. Shoot, I’ve seen creators upload their series, print up and sell collected editions. If you can eliminate the middle man, do it.
**Pre orders for Loud Snow are being taken for just $8.00 plus shipping. (Ordering from us after June 21st, the price goes up to $9.99.) We’re offering a better price than Barnes and Noble pre-order because pre-ordering from Amazon.com or BN.com isn’t going to help up pay for printing costs. (Amazon and BN.com sells at the list price, which is $12.99.) Amelie and I want to print these books without going into the red–and we need only 80 pre-orders to pull that off. ^_^
I know many fen won’t pre-order directly from publishers because of shipping costs–we charge only $1.50 to ship. Also, we’re using a local PostNet office, so neither Amelie nor I will have access to anyone’s email or snail mail address. I know privacy is an important issue with some fans and they don’t want other people on the net to know their address. We anticipated this and hired PostNet to carry out our fulfillment. We’re even taking Amazon Payments for pre-orders for those who have their info plugged into Amazon. Paypal for those that don’t.
Tina Anderson can be found at her website, tina-anderson.net!
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March 29th, 2010 The Babes
One of the Babes was perusing Amazon.com this morning, when she found a lovely little pre-order:
UNDER GRAND HOTEL!
Oh, our prayers have been answered!
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March 20th, 2010 The Babes
We received a question via Formspring a few days ago inquiring if we’d ever run a smut contest again. Well, 2007 was our last one and we didn’t get many entries. It was a dismal turnout, honestly, compared to the previous years.
However, it’s been three years! There should be some good stuff out there! We want new boy-on-boy action! (Who doesn’t?) Sooo…
Would you participate in a smut contest this spring/summer?
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