Ingram is being Amazon...

Okay...apparently after selling HTRASG for 8 years, somehow Ingram decided it's suddenly in violation of their catalogue rules and was removed -- in December 2021. What that violation is? No idea. Can't get a straight answer. 

The first rep said it was still being reviewed after submission, and there was a backlog. When I pointed out the book had already been accepted and distributed years ago, suddenly a different rep was saying it violated their terms and claimed I was sent a notice in December. Which I did not get; I keep all my Ingram emails. So I've asked them to resend it and maybe that will explain WTF is going on.

My gut says this is a situation like what happened with Amazon in 2010, when HTRASG was used by a reporter for Seattle's Fox affiliate as an example of pornography they were selling. Amazon freaked out and stopped carrying all my books, at that time. 

It took me 10 weeks to get Amazon to calm down, actually vet the book and see it does not fall under the aegis of pornography. At least, as set for by the Supreme Court. As laid out in Wikepedia -- 

(The) Court recognized the inherent risk in legislating what constitutes obscenity, and necessarily limited the scope of the criteria. The criteria (are): 

1. The average person, applying local community standards, looking at the work in its entirety, must find that it appeals to the prurient interest...

2. The work must describe or depict, in an obviously offensive way, sexual conduct, or excretory functions...(and)...

3. The work as a whole must lack "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific values".

The third criterion pertains to judgment made by "reasonable persons" of the United States as a whole, while the first two pertain to that of members of the local community. Due to the larger scope of the third test, it is a more ambiguous criterion than the first two.

So all three apply, not just one or two. 

They finally agreed to offer all my paperbacks, again. But they wouldn't post HTRASG or RIHC6 in Kindle because of the word Rape in them. Ludicrous, but that they would not back down on...and sales never did recover.

So here we go, again. Some puritan dipshit probably complained and Ingram's gone all Amazon on me, regarding this one book. There's far more intense sexual content in my others, but none of them fall into the realm of porn. All have stories with meaning, characters who go through changes, relationships that matter and not one has a sex bit that is gratuitous. They're rough, but they all further the story.

Guess we'll see how it goes.