Pleasing Hannah (Part 2)

Pleasing Hannah (Part 2) is now live on Smashwords!  I'm really excited about this series and I've already started on part 3!  Part 2 will be trickling out to Barnes and Noble, Sony, Apple, Kobo, Diesel, and the other Smashwords partners over the next few weeks and will be live on Amazon within the next 72 hours.

Pleasing Hannah

Pleasing Hannah is now live on here on Smashwords!  It will be on Amazon within the next 24 hours and then should trickle out to all the others through Smashwords over the next 4-6 weeks!  Thank you again to all of my readers!

- Logan

Screwing the Landlady

Screwing the Landlady is now live on Smashwords and on Amazon!  It will be trickling out to the other retailers (Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Kobo, Diesel, and Smashwords library partners) over the next two to four weeks.

I hope that you guys like it and I would love to hear what you think about it!  Thanks again to all of my readers.

High School Reunion

High School Reunion is now up for sale here at Smashwords!  It should be live at Amazon in the next 24 hours and then it will trickle out to Kobo, Sony, Diesel, Apple, and Barnes and Noble over the next few weeks.

I hope that everyone likes the story and I wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to be working on the sequel to Breaking of a Freshman next.  I'm finishing up a class this evening as I take a final online and I should have time to get that out as well in the next 2-3 weeks.

Thank you again to everyone who reads the words I put down on page!

- Logan

Apple rejected Blackmail Sex (Part 2)

I noticed today that this title was not appearing on the iBookstore so I emailed Smashwords about it.  Smashwords is always a pleasure to deal with.  I've been with them for over two years now and I've never had any problems.

They got back to me in less than ten minutes and let me know that Blackmail Sex (Part 2) had been rejected by the crew at Apple because it contained "non-consensual sex".  So, if you're a reader looking for this title on the iBookstore, I apologize.  Here is a link to where you can find it on Smashwords.com directly.

- Logan

Red Hot Mess

Red Hot Mess is now on sale and available at Smashwords at the hyperlink I've included.  I'll be putting it on on Amazon in the next few minutes although it'll take a few days to appear there and a few weeks to trickle out to the other retailers through Smashwords.  I hope everyone enjoys reading the Redhead Trouble series as much as I am enjoying writing them!

On an unrelated note, I promise to finish up some of the series' that people have been emailing me about next and I really appreciate all of your feedback.  Keep reading them and I'll keep writing them!

Flaming Red

Flaming Red is now on sale at Smashwords.com and will be up on Amazon in the next few days!  It will be a few weeks until Smashwords distributes it out to Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Diesel and the others but I hope that everyone enjoys it!

Logan

Blackmail Sex

Blackmail Sex is now for sale on Smashwords.com!  It will be uploaded to Amazon tonight before I go to bed and it will trickle out to Barnes and Noble, Sony, Diesel, Apple, Kobo, and the other Smashwords retailers over the next few weeks.  Thank you again to all my readers!

Hotel Fling

Just wanted to let everyone know that I just uploaded this story to Smashwords and I'm getting ready to put it up on Amazon, although as usual it will take a few days before it goes live on Amazon and probably about 14 days before it starts to appear on Smashwords partner sites.

Logan

My Mystery Lover

Just wanted to let everyone know, new and old fans alike, that as soon as I post this blog entry I'm uploading the the story above at Smashwords.  It will take a few weeks to trickle out to the sites that Smashwords distributes to and unfortunately Amazon still isn't what I would call friendly to free stories so I'll sneak this in as a bonus story on Amazon the next time I publish another paid one.  Thank you everyone for the emails and the support!  I love hearing from you!

Logan

Three Stories Published Soon

If you haven't heard, yesterday Smashwords announced that PayPal reversed their earlier decision censoring certain ebooks in the genre of erotica. This is great news for the industry and I want to thank Mark Coker and his staff for all the hard work! I also want to thank PayPal for being open minded enough to engage Mark in dialogue on the subject.

On a lighter note, when this happened I put two stories on hold awaiting the outcome, then started a third story! What this means for you the reader is that I have three stories in various stages of completion and will be trying to get them out as soon as possible! Look for the first to be posted to Smashwords before the end of the upcoming weekend.

Removing Various Stories

Yesterday I received an email from Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords that explained the need to have various titles removed from their website, thus removed from distribution for a whole slew of other websites to include Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, Sony, etc.


I understand their reasoning for doing it and I am sure that you will as well after reading the below email.  But that said, this is going to hurt me to pull several of my stories, and hurt the reader as hundreds, if not thousands of stories are pulled from these websites.


I'm not a fan of bestiality, and I'm not a fan of rape, but I will admit that what two consensual adults do in their own home is their own business.  Thus, while I have not, nor ever desire to participate in incest I have written about it and those stories are all going to be pulled.  There are five stories that I know of off the top of my head that feature either incest outright, or psuedo-incest as they refer to it down below.


It's interesting to note from a writer's perspective that the stories that push the limits of what society finds acceptable are the stories that sell the best.  By far the best.  People fantasize about what they cannot have or will not have the courage to go after.  I think that fantasizing about ANYTHING is okay.  In my view, it provides an outlet for people that DO fantasize about something like Rape to satisfy a curiosity that is safe for everyone.  Who knows what would happen when you deny that ability to fantasize?  One can only imagine.


I am also against censorship in any form.  Who should be the one to decide what is acceptable for anyone else to read or write?  Who should be the gatekeeper of the written word?  Publishers filled that role for generations because they occupied a position of power and they could.  Smashwords is doing a good job of challenging that and I hope that they will continue to challenge this in some way.  Whether that is by finding an alternate way of processing and accepting payments (Google maybe) or some other way I don't pretend to know.  


What I do know, is that I don't want anyone no matter who they are to be a moral gatekeeper for me or anyone else.  I'm thirty years old and I can decide for myself what I should read and what I should not, thank you very much.


Your thoughts?

Dear Smashwords Authors, Publishers and Literary Agents,

This email is being sent to all authors, publishers and agents who have published
erotica at Smashwords.  We will also post this message to Site Updates and the
Press Room.

According to our records, you pubish 23 erotica-categorized title(s) out of 25
title(s) now live in the Smashwords system.  This message may or may not pertain
to you.

Today we are modifying our Terms of Service to clarify our policies regarding
erotic fiction that contains bestiality, rape and incest.  If you write in any
of these categories, please carefully read the instructions below and remove
such content from Smashwords.  If you don’t write in these categories, you can
disregard this message.

PayPal is requiring Smashwords to immediately begin removing the above-mentioned
categories of books.  Please review your title(s) and proactively remove and
archive such works if you are affected.

I apologize for the short notice, and I’m especially sorry for any financial
or emotional hardship this may cause the authors and publishers affected by this
change.

As you may have heard, in the last couple weeks PayPal began aggressively enforcing
a prohibition against online retailers selling certain types of "obscene" content.
 For good background on the issue, see this Selena Kitt post here - http://selenakitt.com/blog/index.php/2012/02/19/slippery-slope-erotica-censorship/
or here - http://theselfpublishingrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/02/slippery-slope-erotica-censorship.html#comment-form
or this Kindleboards thread here - http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,104604.0.html

On Saturday, February 18, PayPal’s enforcement division contacted Smashwords
with an ultimatum.  As with the other ebook retailers affected by this enforcement,
PayPal gave us only a few days to achieve compliance otherwise they threatened
to deactivate our PayPal services.   I've had multiple conversations with PayPal
over the last several days to better understand their requirements.  Their team
has been helpful, forthcoming and supportive of the Smashwords mission.  I appreciate
their willingness to engage in dialogue. Although they have tried their best
to delineate their policies, gray areas remain.

Their hot buttons are bestiality, rape-for-titillation, incest and underage erotica.

The underage erotica is not a problem for us.  We already have some of the industry’s
strictest policies prohibiting underage characters (we don’t even allow non-participating
minors to appear in erotica), and our vetting team is always on the lookout for
"barely legal" content where supposed adults are placed in underage situations.

The other three areas of bestiality, rape and incest were less well-defined in
our Terms of Service (https://www.smashwords.com/about/tos) before today.   I’ll
tackle these one-by-one below, and I'll provide you a summary of the changes
that will go into effect immediately.

*Incest:*  Until now, we didn’t have a policy prohibiting incest between consenting
adults, or its non-biological variation commonly known as "Pseudo-incest."  Neither
did our retailer partners.  We’ve noticed a surge of PI books over the last few
months, and many of them have "Daddy" in the title.  I wouldn't be surprised
if the surge in "Daddy" titles prompted PayPal to pursue this purge (I don't
know).  PI usually explores sexual relations between consenting adult stepchildren
with their step parents, or between step-siblings.  Effectively immediately,
we no longer allow incest of any variety in erotica.

Like many writers, censorship of any form greatly concerns me.  It is with some
reluctance that I have made the decision to prohibit incest-themed erotica at
Smashwords.  Regardless of your opinion on incest, it’s a slippery slope when
we allow others to control what we think and write.  Fiction is fantasy.  It’s
not real.  It unfolds in our imagination.  I’ve always believed fiction writers
and readers should have the freedom to explore diverse topics and situations
in the privacy of their own mind.  From an imagination perspective, erotica is
little different from a literary novel that puts us inside the mind of farm animals
(1984), or a thriller novel that puts us inside the mind of a terrorist, or a
horror novel that puts us inside the mind of an axe-murderer or their victim.
 All fiction takes us somewhere.  We read fiction to be moved, and to feel.
Sometimes we want to feel touched, moved, or disturbed.  A reader should have
the right to feel moved however they desire to be moved.

Incest, however, carries thorny baggage.  The legality of incest is murky.  It
creates a potential legal liability for Smashwords as our business and our books
become more present in more jurisdictions around the world.   Anything that threatens
Smashwords directly threatens our ability to serve the greater interests of all
Smashwords authors, publishers, retailers and customers who rely upon us as the
world’s leading distributor of indie ebooks.  The business considerations compel
me to not fall on the sword for incest.  I realize this is an imperfect decision.
 The slippery slope is dangerous, but I believe this imperfect decision is in
the best interest of the community we serve.

*Bestiality:*  Until now, we didn’t have a stated policy regarding bestiality.
I like animals.  Call me old fashioned or hypocritical (I’m not a vegetarian),
but I don’t want to be a party to anyone enjoying animals for sexual gratification,
for the same reason we’ve never allowed pedophilia books.  I don’t want to publish
it, sell it, or distribute it.  The TOS is now modified to reflect this.  Note
this does not apply to shape-shifters common in paranormal romance provided the
were-creature characters are getting it on in their human form.  Sorry I need
to clarify it that way, but we don’t want to see bestiality erotica masquerading
as paranormal romance.

*Rape:*  Although our Terms of Service prohibits books that advocate violence
against others, we did not specifically identify rape.  This was an oversight
on our part.  Now we have clarified the policy.  We do not want books that contain
rape for the purpose of titillation.  At Smashwords, rape has no longer has a
place in erotica.  It has no place anywhere else if the purpose is to titillate.
 Non-consensual BDSM - or any other form of non-consensual violence against another
person - is prohibited.

*NEXT STEPS:*  If you have titles at Smashwords that are now expressly forbidden,
by the end of day Monday (Feb 27), please click to your Dashboard at (EDITED FOR MY PRIVACY)
and click UNPUBLISH then click ARCHIVE.  This will also cause our automated systems
to remove the titles from retail distribution.

DO NOT try to hide or obfuscate violating content by changing book titles, book
descriptions and tags.  If we discover such shenanigans, said authors/publishers
will risk account deletion and forfeiture of any accrued earnings, per our Terms
of Service.

We take violations of the TOS seriously, because such violations jeopardize the
opportunities for your fellow authors.

We do not want to see PayPal clamp down further against erotica.  We think our
authors should be allowed to publish erotica.  Erotica, despite the attacks it
faces from moralists, is a category worthy of protection.  Erotica allows readers
to safely explore aspects of sexuality that they might never want to explore
in the real world.

The moralists forget that we humans are all sexual creatures, and the biggest
sex organ is the brain.  If it were not the case, none of us would be here.
Erotica authors are facing discrimination, plain and simple.  Topics that are
perfectly acceptable in mainstream fiction are verboten in erotica.  That’s not
fair.  Our decisions today are imperfect.  Please, act responsibly, don’t try
to game the system or publish content that pushes the limits of legality.  Help
us continue to help indie authors around the world to continue to publish and
distribute with freedom.

*THINGS TO AVOID:*  Avoid using words such as 'bestiality,' 'rape,' 'incest,'
'underage,' or 'barely legal' in book titles, book descriptions or keyword tags,
otherwise Smashwords may conclude you’re violating the Terms of Service, or trying
to push the limits.  If you’re writing non-erotic works, and any of these words
are necessary, then you’re okay.

On Tuesday (Feb 28) we will begin removing content that we deem in violation.
 When we remove a title, you will receive an email notifying you of such, and
that email will append this letter along with instructions on how to notify us
if we made an error.   I promise you, we will make mistakes, so please work with
us, take a deep breath and honor us with your patience.

If you believe we removed something in error, please click "Comments/questions,"
mention the title we removed, provide the hyperlink to said title, and provide
your *calm* reasoning for why we should reconsider.

Our support team is backlogged, so it may take several days for them to respond.
 As we mention in the Terms of Service, we reserve the right to remove anything
for any reason.  That said, we will also try to make our decisions with care
and prudence.

You might wonder if Smashwords should simply switch to a different payment provider.
 It’s not so easy.  PayPal is designed into the wiring of the Smashwords platform.
 They run the credit card processing for our retail store, and they’re how we
pay our authors and publishers.  PayPal is also an extremely popular, trusted
payment option for our customers.  It is not feasible for us to simply switch
to another provider, should such a suitable provider even exist, especially with
so few days notice.

Please note our Terms of Service is subject to additional modifications as we
work to bring Smashwords into compliance with PayPal requirements.  Let’s hope
today’s actions mark the limit of the slippery slope.

Significant gray area remain.  Erotica is still permitted, though if authors
try to push the limits of what’s permitted, we risk further clamping down.  Please
be responsible.  Don’t go there.   If you’re going to push the limits, push the
limits of great writing, not the limits of legality.

Thank you for assisting our compliance efforts on such short notice.  We know
these decisions will be upsetting to some of our authors and publishers, and
for that we apologize.  We do believe, however, that these decisions will place
us on a stronger footing to represent the best interests all indie authors and
publishers from here forward.

Best wishes,

Mark Coker
Founder
Smashwords

P.S.  Please contact our support team for inquiries regarding this change in
our Terms of Service by clicking the "comments/questions" link at the top of
any page at Smashwords.  If your inquiry regards a specific title, please include
the hyperlink to the book page of that specific title.

Logan Lee's Best of 2011 . . .

. . . is now up and online at smashwords.com.  Just click on the link to go straight there.  I will be getting it online at Amazon before the end of the day, assuming that it makes it through their content filters and doesn't get flagged.  If that happens then I am sorry but there isn't much of a way around it since Amazon won't inform the writer what they found objectionable.  This collection contains the following five stories for $2.99, that individually each sell for $0.99

1) Shoplifters

2) Cheaters Have More Fun

3) I Can’t Help That I’m A Slut (Part 1)

4) Jenn’s Story

5) How My Revenge Backfired

Cheaters Have More Fun

That's the name of my newest story that went on sale at Smashwords and Amazon already and should be up at all of the other retailers (B&N, Sony, Kobo, Diesel, and Apple).  Yes, after almost a year, the majority of my stories are up on the Apple itunes store finally!  Apple has a lengthy review process for all things erotica that is supposed to take about 90 days and mine was taking quite a bit longer.  Thanks to the Smashwords team for getting that handled for me!

Amazon . . . .

. . . . pulled the title Shoplifters two days ago. However, it is still available on Smashwords in the Kindle's .mobi format as well as others!

Amazon Update

I managed to get the story Shoplifters up on Amazon.  It should be trickling out to everywhere else shortly via Smashwords.  It was blocked at first and so I did a quick search of it replacing the word "Wal-Mart" with "the store" or "a department store" etcetera.  For some reason it went right through their filters with that change.

This week I will try to make some minor changes and get the other two stories that they have blocked online.  I may not run one of them on there again at all though because the only way I think that I could get it online would be to change the title.  My concern is that if I do that people will pay for a story that they already read since I had several hundred downloads before Amazon blocked it.  That wouldn't be fair to readers to pay for the same story twice and I don't have any real way to warn away the people who already bought it.

Amazon Update

So Amazon has officially blocked a third story that went up last night before it even went on sale. I have no idea why because they don't say.

I'll work on getting them online with Amazon sooner or later. I guess I'll start with changing the titles and see if that's what they have problems with. No other website has blocked any of my stories though so if you own a Kindle search Logan Lee on Smashwords where ALL my work is located and you can download from them to your computer, then install to the Kindle in the right format.

Long live Smashwords!

Amazon and Kindle Direct Publishing

Amazon has removed two of my stories in the last two weeks for "inappropriate content". I'm not sure if they will remove these from the ereaders of people who purchased them or not. If they do I apologize.

I'm not fond of Amazon or KDP for a number of reasons, this is only the most recent. For now at least, everything I have written is still available at www.smashwords.com where it can even be downloaded in the Kindle file format.

Again my apologies to my readers, I'm sorry about any inconvenience this has caused or will cause you.

Logan

Okay, I feel like a douche . . .

 . . . because I just discovered that Smashwords will assign a free ISBN number to the things that I write!  That's awesome because the only thing limiting me from reaching out to readers on the Apple iBookstore and the Sony Bookstore was the fact that ISBN's cost about $50 a pop to buy one myself and that didn't seem feasible.  So . . . long story short, the things that I write will soon be coming to readers on two more venues!

Update on where Logan's eBooks are sold

Currently my work can be found on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Smashwords.  It is in the process of being posted to Kobo and Diesel.

As of right now I will not have anything on the Apple eBook Store or the Sony eBook Store.  Both of these stores require ISBN's and at this point in my career I have not written anything that I would like to assign an ISBN to.

As for the Google eBook Store, I have tried numerous times, at least six, to upload the story Like Mother Like Daughter to Google.  All have failed.  The site said that it was uploaded successfully each time but then it just vanished.  Google responded that it could take several hours, but I tried weeks ago and nothing.  At this point in time, I'm waiting for Smashwords to work out a deal with Google.  I think that Google would be well served to conclude their deal with Smashwords as they're missing out on something significant that the other eBook retailers all have access to.

On the subject of Lulu.  I will not be posting my stories to Lulu at this time.  I may put a few of the free ones up on there, but I want to keep my prices the same across all retailers and I can't do that with Lulu since their minimum is $1 and I'm charging $0.99 at the others.  Not to mention that $1 only nets the writer $0.01 at Lulu. Which is the absolute worst by far of all the retailers.