One step away from the banned book list?

I’m an author because I love to write and to share stories with my readers.  When I first ventured into this creative world, I didn’t want to be limited in what my stories included.  I wanted to write without fear of being censored … I wanted to write about things that happen in real life … I wanted to include situations in my stories that people could relate to.

Apparently, though, if you do this, you have an opportunity to be turned away from a seller because of what they consider “questionable or prohibited content.”  You might even find yourself landing on the “banned book list” simply because you chose to be yourself in your writing and to share your creativity in the way that mattered to you.

This recently happened to me:  a company that shall remain un-named refused to sell my second book on their site because they felt it contained prohibited content.  Aside from the fact they aren’t consistently applying this lens to all the items on their site, it’s frustrating that I’ve worked so hard on a story only to have it not available to my readers through a popular medium.  What happens when my readers look me up and only find books one and three there.  Do they wonder where the heck book two is?  Do they think I just didn’t write the second book and the story skips from freshman year straight to junior year?

I understand that companies have the right to refuse what they sell on their sites.  Fine.  If that’s the case, then be consistent.  What I don’t understand is the bigger picture of why prohibited or questionable content is even an issue?  It’s almost like we’re living in the 1950s again and topics like nudity and sex are a subject that people would rather keep locked behind closed doors.  

Come on, Corporate America.  You’re more mature than that.  Get with the program and understand that what you consider “prohibited or questionable content” happens on a daily basis in this fine country of ours.  Why would we want to shroud it in darkness and push it off the shelves and lock it up in the “do not touch” wall safe?  I have a novel idea…slap a sticker on it that it contains adult  themes and let the general public choose whether or not they want to buy and/or read it!  You do that with music, so why not books?  

Until this organization is able to bring its thinking into the 21^st century, you can still find my second book at those retailers that do support creativity such as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.  Yay for some companies that still believe an author’s creativity shouldn’t be censored or put on a “do not touch” shelf!