54 years ago, Penguin Books was persecuted for publishing D.H. Lawrence’s ‘obscene’ Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Penguin won the case and “changed Britain forever” (Sandbrook, 2010). The case of Lady Chatterley’s Lover emphasised the public’s craving for more daring, ‘adult’ content. 15 minutes after winning the court case, Foyles alone sold 300 copies and ordered 3,000 more (Sandbrook, 2010). This interest in controversial content has continued, evidenced in the recent response to E.L. James’ bestselling 50 Shades Trilogy.
October 2013 found hardcore pornographic titles appearing in the same search results as children’s stories on booksellers’ websites. For example, searching “Daddy” on WHSmith wielded results of both Bedtime Stories to Grandchildren and the explicit Pregnant with Daddy (Ellery & Gallagher, 2013). These were self-published through Kobo, with “inaccurate and misleading metadata that were intended to aid their discovery by consumers” (Sutherland, 2013). Through setting up fake publishing houses and using symbols to censor key words, self-published authors were able to skip the necessary categorisation, and therefore disguise illicit material that goes against Amazon and Kobo guidelines (Abrams, 2013). Whilst finding these items on Amazon itself requires a direct link, the recommended items then showed a further number of explicit publications. Yet, booksellers with an automated feed to Kobo had pornographic results integrated. WHSmith and Kobo shut down their websites until all abuse-themed e-books were removed (Kellogg, 2013).
The Indecent Displays Control Act, 1981, incriminates anyone making or permitting indecent public displays. Showcasing specific chosen books is manageable for bookstores at times when they select the works available on store shelves, endorsing it through giving shelf space based upon their own judgement of quality (Sutherland, 2013). However, self-publishing platforms such as Kindle’s Direct Publishing and Nook’s Writing Life make it increasingly easier for authors to self-publish, focusing on quantity, not quality. These differing expectations result in more of an outraged reaction from the public towards booksellers than the publishing platforms (Sutherland, 2013).
Booksellers face the problem of deciding which self-published titles should be displayed and which are too ‘hardcore’. How does one distinguish between a novel one finds scandalous and one that will be accepted by the general public? Holloway says authors should have the freedom to write whatever they deem acceptable (2014). He also says “readers’ needs” should be taken into consideration by the author. Thus, does the increase in hardcore erotice titles correlate with readers’ needs? And, even it does, the main question remains: who decides what to censor?
Whilst Amazon and Nook have their guidelines in place, I feel there should be more of an importance on the correct usage of meta tags and categorisation, as they do not discourage hardcore erotica writers from self-publishing. However, age appropriateness is necessary, through more filters and age verification methods. Yet, these are difficult to police, “especially on large aggregator sites such as Amazon or Kobo” (Stephenson, 2013). One solution recommended by Morozov (2011) is to “crowdsource censorship”; an idea similar to Sutherland’s “e-Bay style feedback system”, which ‘solves publishing problems, identifies and labels good behaviour from authors, locates and penalises bad behaviour, provides filtering methods for conventional authors who are self-publishing, and eliminates “review trolls”’ (2013). This could greatly reduce the number of explicit publications through censoring, whilst being a decision made by the public, not a corporation.
Word count: 549
Bibliography
October 2013 found hardcore pornographic titles appearing in the same search results as children’s stories on booksellers’ websites. For example, searching “Daddy” on WHSmith wielded results of both Bedtime Stories to Grandchildren and the explicit Pregnant with Daddy (Ellery & Gallagher, 2013). These were self-published through Kobo, with “inaccurate and misleading metadata that were intended to aid their discovery by consumers” (Sutherland, 2013). Through setting up fake publishing houses and using symbols to censor key words, self-published authors were able to skip the necessary categorisation, and therefore disguise illicit material that goes against Amazon and Kobo guidelines (Abrams, 2013). Whilst finding these items on Amazon itself requires a direct link, the recommended items then showed a further number of explicit publications. Yet, booksellers with an automated feed to Kobo had pornographic results integrated. WHSmith and Kobo shut down their websites until all abuse-themed e-books were removed (Kellogg, 2013).
The Indecent Displays Control Act, 1981, incriminates anyone making or permitting indecent public displays. Showcasing specific chosen books is manageable for bookstores at times when they select the works available on store shelves, endorsing it through giving shelf space based upon their own judgement of quality (Sutherland, 2013). However, self-publishing platforms such as Kindle’s Direct Publishing and Nook’s Writing Life make it increasingly easier for authors to self-publish, focusing on quantity, not quality. These differing expectations result in more of an outraged reaction from the public towards booksellers than the publishing platforms (Sutherland, 2013).
Booksellers face the problem of deciding which self-published titles should be displayed and which are too ‘hardcore’. How does one distinguish between a novel one finds scandalous and one that will be accepted by the general public? Holloway says authors should have the freedom to write whatever they deem acceptable (2014). He also says “readers’ needs” should be taken into consideration by the author. Thus, does the increase in hardcore erotice titles correlate with readers’ needs? And, even it does, the main question remains: who decides what to censor?
Whilst Amazon and Nook have their guidelines in place, I feel there should be more of an importance on the correct usage of meta tags and categorisation, as they do not discourage hardcore erotica writers from self-publishing. However, age appropriateness is necessary, through more filters and age verification methods. Yet, these are difficult to police, “especially on large aggregator sites such as Amazon or Kobo” (Stephenson, 2013). One solution recommended by Morozov (2011) is to “crowdsource censorship”; an idea similar to Sutherland’s “e-Bay style feedback system”, which ‘solves publishing problems, identifies and labels good behaviour from authors, locates and penalises bad behaviour, provides filtering methods for conventional authors who are self-publishing, and eliminates “review trolls”’ (2013). This could greatly reduce the number of explicit publications through censoring, whilst being a decision made by the public, not a corporation.
Word count: 549
Bibliography