Yesterday, Digital Manga Publishing announced that its publications have been suspended from the Kindle publishing platform for violation of Kindle’s prohibition against “Pornography and hard-core material that depicts graphic sexual acts,” according to DMP, presumably a result of DMP’s yaoi manga. (A warning that this was coming was first released via tweet on Feb. 22.) Amazon’s Kindle Content Guidelines state “We don’t accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.” DMP’s blog notes that the company finds “it disheartening that our titles depicting male homosexual romance have been banned while erotica depicting other forms of intercourse flourishes.”
Presumably DMP is referring to the recent flurry of interest in Fifty Shades of Gray, currently in the #2 spot on Amazon.Com’s top 100 best selling list. Last Saturday Fifty Shades of Gray was featured in a New York Times article, “Discreetly Digital, Erotic Novel Sets American Women Abuzz.” The book, about a wealthy man and a college girl who enter into a dominant/submissive relationship has, according to the article, introduced “women who usually read run-of-the-mill literary or commercial fiction to graphic, heavy-breathing erotica.”
Of course, DMP is exaggerating by suggesting that Amazon is particularly targeting male homosexual romance, since Kindle offerings are rife with male/male romances that feature, yes, a number of graphic sexual acts. Given this, one has to wonder if Amazon’s concern is with the graphic sexual content itself, or with the fact that DMP’s content is illustrated — although The Joy of Gay Sex is available on Kindle, complete with graphic illustrations easily previewed via the “Click to Look Inside” tab — or, perhaps, with the fact that yaoi manga is a “comic book,” given the lingering Western stereotype that comics are still, essentially, kids’ stuff.
Or could it be that Amazon’s Kindle store getting ready to kill all of its erotic titles? That seems highly unlikely — erotica is a lucrative e-publishing niche, after all, and a quick search today on “erotica” under the Kindle Books category pulls up 46,638 results (see image at bottom of post).
While all of this is going on, DMP itself has recently been subject to criticism among some yaoi fans after a March 10 post from yaoi scanlation group Dangerous Pleasure that criticized DMP’s Digital Manga Guild for “aggressive and accusing” posts about its scanlations. The Digital Manga Guild, on the other hand, defends its right to send out “cease and desist” notices to scanlators and has been handling the debate with Dangerous Pleasure and other groups in its forum on the DMP website.
Setting aside the unlikely-to-be-resolved-anytime-soon tension between manga licensors and scanlators, the question of yaoi’s future on the Kindle is something worth watching. Will this suspension be applied to Kindle works by Yaoi Press and SuBLime, a partnership between Libre Publishing Co., Ltd., VIZ Media LLC, and Animate U.S.A.? Will the suspension spread to erotic novels and sex advice books?
Or will Amazon eventually accept that digital publishing is conceptually no different from paper publishing, and allow the same kinds of content in its digital-copy store as it does in its paper-copy store?
(Update: DMP was reinstated as of 3/16/12)
References:
Bosman, Julie. “Discreetly Digital, Erotic Novel Sets American Women Abuzz.” New York Times, March 10, 2012. Accessed March 10, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/business/media/an-erotic-novel-50-shades-of-grey-goes-viral-with-women.html.
Digital Manga Blog. “Important Announcement: DMP’s Kindle Publishing Suspended.” Accessed March 16, 2012. http://www.digitalmanga.com/blog/2356/important-announcement-dmps-kindle-publishing-suspended.
Digital Manga Forums, Digital Manga Guild, The Guild Guide. “Dealing with Scanlations of Your Titles.” http://www.digitalmanga.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2193%3E.
Scyren. “2012-3-9 Announcement.” Dangerous Pleasure Scanlation Group. Accessed March 10, 2012. http://www.digitalmanga.com/blog/2356/important-announcement-dmps-kindle-publishing-suspended.
Yaoi, Amazon, and Sex
Yesterday, Digital Manga Publishing announced that its publications have been suspended from the Kindle publishing platform for violation of Kindle’s prohibition against “Pornography and hard-core material that depicts graphic sexual acts,” according to DMP, presumably a result of DMP’s yaoi manga. (A warning that this was coming was first released via tweet on Feb. 22.) Amazon’s Kindle Content Guidelines state “We don’t accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.” DMP’s blog notes that the company finds “it disheartening that our titles depicting male homosexual romance have been banned while erotica depicting other forms of intercourse flourishes.”
Of course, DMP is exaggerating by suggesting that Amazon is particularly targeting male homosexual romance, since Kindle offerings are rife with male/male romances that feature, yes, a number of graphic sexual acts. Given this, one has to wonder if Amazon’s concern is with the graphic sexual content itself, or with the fact that DMP’s content is illustrated — although The Joy of Gay Sex is available on Kindle, complete with graphic illustrations easily previewed via the “Click to Look Inside” tab — or, perhaps, with the fact that yaoi manga is a “comic book,” given the lingering Western stereotype that comics are still, essentially, kids’ stuff.
Or could it be that Amazon’s Kindle store getting ready to kill all of its erotic titles? That seems highly unlikely — erotica is a lucrative e-publishing niche, after all, and a quick search today on “erotica” under the Kindle Books category pulls up 46,638 results (see image at bottom of post).
While all of this is going on, DMP itself has recently been subject to criticism among some yaoi fans after a March 10 post from yaoi scanlation group Dangerous Pleasure that criticized DMP’s Digital Manga Guild for “aggressive and accusing” posts about its scanlations. The Digital Manga Guild, on the other hand, defends its right to send out “cease and desist” notices to scanlators and has been handling the debate with Dangerous Pleasure and other groups in its forum on the DMP website.
Setting aside the unlikely-to-be-resolved-anytime-soon tension between manga licensors and scanlators, the question of yaoi’s future on the Kindle is something worth watching. Will this suspension be applied to Kindle works by Yaoi Press and SuBLime, a partnership between Libre Publishing Co., Ltd., VIZ Media LLC, and Animate U.S.A.? Will the suspension spread to erotic novels and sex advice books?
Or will Amazon eventually accept that digital publishing is conceptually no different from paper publishing, and allow the same kinds of content in its digital-copy store as it does in its paper-copy store?
(Update: DMP was reinstated as of 3/16/12)
References:
Bosman, Julie. “Discreetly Digital, Erotic Novel Sets American Women Abuzz.” New York Times, March 10, 2012. Accessed March 10, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/business/media/an-erotic-novel-50-shades-of-grey-goes-viral-with-women.html.
Digital Manga Blog. “Important Announcement: DMP’s Kindle Publishing Suspended.” Accessed March 16, 2012. http://www.digitalmanga.com/blog/2356/important-announcement-dmps-kindle-publishing-suspended.
Digital Manga Forums, Digital Manga Guild, The Guild Guide. “Dealing with Scanlations of Your Titles.” http://www.digitalmanga.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2193%3E.
Scyren. “2012-3-9 Announcement.” Dangerous Pleasure Scanlation Group. Accessed March 10, 2012. http://www.digitalmanga.com/blog/2356/important-announcement-dmps-kindle-publishing-suspended.