Smashwords Call to Action against PayPal in support of Erotica Authors/Publishers

My publisher received the following from Smashwords! Read it! It's important! I'm sickened by the idea that PayPal is demanding Smashwords to remove legal content from its authors and indy publishers. I don't care who is forcing PayPal into doing this, but it's not right. I don't write erotica, but I can see Smashwords' fear that this is going to become a slippery slope to censorship to many other genres.

Please read the following letter from Smashwords!


PAYPAL CENSORSHIP UPDATE ________________________________________
In case you haven't heard, about two weeks ago, PayPal contacted Smashwords and gave us a surprise ultimatum: Remove all titles containing bestiality, rape or incest, otherwise they threatened to deactivate our PayPal account. We engaged them in discussions and on Monday they gave us a temporary reprieve as we continue to work in good faith to find a suitable solution.

PayPal tells us that their crackdown is necessary so that they can remain in compliance with the requirements of the banks and credit card associations (likely Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, though they didn't mention them by name).

Last Friday, I sent the following email to our erotica authors and publishers: https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/27

Then on Monday, I issued an update, and announced we would delay enforcement of PayPal's guidelines so we and PayPal could continue our discussions: https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/28

THE PROBLEM: PayPal is asking us to censor legal fiction. Regardless of how one views topics of rape, bestiality and incest, these topics are pervasive in mainstream fiction. We believe this crackdown is really targeting erotica writers. This is unfair, and it marks a slippery slope. We don't want credit card companies or financial institutions telling our authors what they can write and what readers can read. Fiction is fantasy. It's not real. It's legal.

THE SOLUTION: There's no easy solution. Legally, PayPal and the credit card companies probably have the right to decide how their services are used. Unfortunately, since they're the moneyrunners, they control the oxygen that feeds digital commerce. Many Smashwords authors have suggested we find a different payment processor. That's not a good long term solution, because if credit card companies are behind this, they'll eventually force crackdowns elsewhere. PayPal works well for us. In addition to running all credit card processing at the Smashwords.com store, PayPal is how we pay all our authors outside the U.S.

My conversations with PayPal are ongoing and have been productive, yet I have no illusion that the road ahead will be simple, or that the outcome will be favorable.

BUILDING A COALITION OF SUPPORT: Independent advocacy groups are considering taking on the PayPal censorship case. I'm supporting the development of this loose-knit coalition of like-minded groups who believe that censorship of legal fiction should not be allowed. We will grow the coalition. Each group will have its own voice and tactics I'm working with them because we share a common cause to protect books from censorship. Earlier today I had conversations with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). I briefed them on the Smashwords/PayPal situation, explained the adverse affect this crackdown will have on some of our authors and customers, and shared my intention to continue working with PayPal in a positive manner to move the discussion forward.

The EFF blogged about the issue a few days ago: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/legal-censorship-paypal-makes-habit-deciding-what-users-can-read

Today, ABFFE and NCAC issued a press release: http://www.scribd.com/doc/83549049/NCAC-ABFFE-Letter-To-PayPal-eBay-re-Ebook-Refusal-2012

I will not be on the streets with torch in hand calling for PayPal's head, but I will encourage interested parties to get involved and speak their piece. This is where you come in...

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Although erotica authors are being targeted, this is an issue that should concern all indie authors. It affects indies disproportionately because indies are the ones pushing the boundaries of fiction. Indies are the ones out there publishing without the (fading) protective patina of a "traditional publisher" to lend them legitimacy. We indies only have each other.

Several Smashwords authors have contacted me to stress that this censorship affects women disproportionately. Women write a lot of the erotica, and they're also the primary consumers of erotica. They're also the primary consumers of mainstream romance, which could also come under threat if PayPal and the credit card companies were to overly enforce their too-broad and too-nebulous obsenity clauses (I think this is unlikely, but at the same time, why would dubious consent be okay in mainstream romance but not okay in erotica? If your write paranormal, can your were-creatures not get it on with one another, or is that bestiality?

The insanity needs to stop here. These are not questions an author, publisher or distributor of legal fiction should have to answer.). All writers and their readers should stand up and voice their opposition to financial services companies censoring books. Authors should have the freedom to publish legal fiction, and readers should have the freedom to read what they want.

These corporations need to hear from you. Pick up the phone and call them. Email them. Start petitions. Sign petitions. Blog your opposition to censorship.

Encourage your readers to do the same. Pass the word among your social networks.

Contact your favorite bloggers and encourage them to follow this story. Contact your local newspaper and offer to let them interview you so they can hear a local author's perspective on this story of international significance. If you have connections to mainstream media, encourage them to pick up on the story. Encourage them to call the credit card companies and pose this simple question, "PayPal says they're trying to enforce the policies of credit card companies. Why are you censoring legal fiction?" Below are links to the companies waiting to hear from you. Click the link and you'll find their phone numbers, executive names and postal mailing addresses.

Be polite, respectful and professional, and encourage your friends and followers to do the same. Let them know you want them out of the business of censoring legal fiction.

Tell the credit card companies you want them to give PayPal permission to sell your ebooks without censorship or discrimination. Let them know that PayPal's policies are out of step with the major online ebook retailers who already accept your books as they are. Address your calls, emails (if you can find the email) and paper letters (yes paper!) to the executives. Post open letters to them on your blog, then tweet and Facebook hyperlinks to your letters. Force the credit card companies to join the discussion about censorship. And yes, express your feelings and opinions to PayPal as well. Don't scream at them. Ask them to work on your behalf to protect you and your readers from censorship. Tell them how their proposed censorship will harm you and your fellow writers.

Visa: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=V+Profile

American Express: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AXP+Profile

MasterCard: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=MA+Profile

Discover: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=DFS+Profile

Ebay (owns PayPal): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=ebay+Profile

_________ Starting Sunday, if our email systems can handle it, we will send out an email to several hundred thousand registered Smashwords members who are opted in to receive occasional Smashwords service updates. The email will combine Read an Ebook Week with the censorship call to action. Let's start a little fire, shall we? Thank you for your continuing support of Smashwords. With your help, we can move mountains.

Best wishes,

Mark
Mark Coker Founder
Smashwords http://smashwords.com
blog: http://blog.smashwords.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/markcoker

Questioning the Angel of Death

A while ago I posted a question to see who of my characters in The Chosen Chronicles you would like to see interviewed on my blog. There was a VERY clear winner - The Angel of Death.

So, this now means I need questions for the Angel, and this is where I need help from you fine folks. If you have a question to ask the Angel from my series The Chosen Chronicles, please post it, but only one.

Out of all the entries, 20 questions will be picked and from that, one person will win a Chibi Chosen of the Angel (http://karendales.com/chibichosen.html) when the interview goes live on my blog. Good luck!

Birthday Wishings

For some strange reason I’ve been having a difficult time with the idea that I’m now a year older. Never before have had I felt anxiety around my birthday. This year has sent me thinking about the reasons.

I’m not going to say how old I am, but suffice it to say, I’m older than most of all my friends, and some of them by more than a decade. It is said that by hanging around with a younger crowd it will keep one young. This is true, but it can also make one feel older. It’s amazing how life experience can age you, especially when you’re more in line with some of your friend’s parents, by age, than your friends.
I think another aspect to my birthday anxiety is that a part of me wishes I have accomplished more by this age. Maybe I’m I’m going through a mid-life crisis. Who knows? I do know that, rationally, I’ve done very well for myself as an author, mother, wife and friend. I guess it’s normal to refect on what could be better and find ways to achieve that.

One major reason, I’ve come to realize, and respect, is that I am at the age my mother was when she started having serious heart problems that resulted in her having a quad-bypass when I was fourteen. Yes, she was young. I know that I’m concerned that history will repeat itself with me despite the fact that I try and live healthily. I guess it’s a matter of wait and see.

I haven’t asked my friends and family for gifts this year, and nor do I expect them. I have enough stuff in my house, though one can never have enough books, ebook or dead tree.:)

There’s only one thing more that I would like for my birthday: To touch more folks with my writing, whether that be through my blog, twitter, facebook and/or my novels, and for those whom I have touched to let me know by emailing me and/or posting reviews of my novels.

If these things were to happen, along with all the great things that have already occurred so far, then I know that this year’s birthday will be the best!

Cheers!

Karen Dales
Award Winning Author

"The Chosen Chronicles" are now $.99 for each eBook.
(also available in Trade Paperback)
Amazon/Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Karen-Dales/e/B004TG6U1Y/
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/karen-dales
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/KarenDales.

Order of The Chosen Chronicles:
Changeling: Prelude to The Chosen Chronicles
Angel of Death: Book One of The Chosen Chronicles
Shadow of Death: Book Two of The Chosen Chronicles
(Soon To Be Released - Thanatos: Book Three of The Chosen Chronicles)

Keep up to date with me and my writing on:
Website – http://karendales.com/
Blog - http://karendalesauthor.blogspot.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/KarenDalesAuthor
Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/karendales
Paranormal & Dark Fantasy Writers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/275723322475302/
Amazon - http://amazon.com/author/karendales

Kelley Armstrong, #1 New York Times Best Selling Author says of Shadow of Death, "... dark...compelling ...that will keep readers turning the pages well past bedtime."

Review for Jean Auel's "Land of Painted Caves"

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I fell in love with Jean Auel's Earth's Children series when Clan of the Cave Bear was first released. I loved that book. I loved the second one and even the third. As the four and then the fifth book came out, my love affair was being strained.

It took 30 years for Ms. Auel to produce the 6 books of the series, but frankly, she would have been better to stop at the third, if not the fourth.

I had high hopes for The Land of Painted Caves. They were crashed to the dark abyss of those caves.

Ms. Auel would have been better writing a travel guide to these painted caves she so obviously visited. Her research, etc, was excellent. Unfortunately, in the span of her research for her books she forgot something very important - how to tell a story.

The CONSTANT repetition, the lack of any plot until the very last of the book, the need to skim over pages and pages just to get to a possible point, were only a few of the issues I had with this book.

As an author myself, I feel that a lot of the onus of this book's miserable failings has to land on Ms. Auel's editors. In my opinion, they did not do their job. I do believe that this book could have been better written, in both plot and structure.

I hate to say it, but if you love Earth's Children, then don't read past the Mammoth Hunters, you'll only become more and more dissappointed, especially when you reach the Land of Painted Caves.



View all my reviews

Birthday Giveaway of Limited Edition of Angel of Death

GIVEAWAY UPDATE: Last night I accidentally came across THE LAST numbered copy of the limited edition of "Angel of Death." I had thought they were all GONE! So I'm revamping (pun not intended) the giveaway so that one lucky person will win the LAST numbered limited edition of my award winning paranormal novel "Angel of Death: Book One of the Chosen Chronicles." There were only ever 200 of them. If you've entered already, you have a chance to win it. If you haven't entered yet to win this coveted prize, time is running out!

From now until 11:59pm February 9th, I'm having a special Birthday Giveaway.

One lucky person will win a signed limited edtion copy of "Angel of Death: Book One of the Chosen Chronicles." Only a small number were ever printed and they were sold through retailers for a very limited time.

To enter for your chance to win this coveted edition all you need to do is fill out this (open Internationally):

The Immortal Vampire

Over the last couple of years I have had the opportunity to discuss the evolution of Vampire s in literature on panels at many different conventions. This past week I read a blog post about the end of vampires in literature. The author of the blog’s reasoning was because the market was super saturated with vampire novels, television shows and movies. The blog’s author wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t right either. For the first time vampire are a hot topic where one can go almost anywhere and find the vampire’s influence on society.

Some believe the vampire is on the way out, leaving a vacuum for zombies, fairies and angels to fill. I do not believe that to be the case. Vampires have opened the doors to allow creative minds to write about other supernatural creatures, bringing them into mainstream imagination. Vampires are not leaving mainstream either, but have integrated into it.

Vampires no longer belong to the horror genre. They have become their own genre with its own sub-genres. The vampire has become more than a putrid animated corpse bent on feeding its insatiable hunger for human blood. Vampires have regained their humanity and all the insanity that comes with being human.

It is this return to humanity that alls authors to explore aspects of the human condition with a creature that was once human. From the romantic to the tragic; from the psychotic to the benevolent; from the irreverent to the spiritual, we see vampires playing the roles that mortals used to play.

What difference does it make to have a vampire, rather than a mortal, play the roles of protagonist or antagonist? Very simply it is the ability to study and hypothesize how certain life experiences over a prolonged period of time would impact someone excessively long lived. In other words, the author can go to the heights or to the depths of those human behaviours. It also allows the author to create a wish fulfillment fantasy of what our society demands: physical beauty (commonly found in the young) and longevity – something that can rarely occur together because of what our current notions of what is beautiful. It also allows for the author to study the descent into darkness one can travel, how one loses their humanity while not being human. In other words, to do so at a safe, imaginary, distance, rather than thinking of the real life human beings who are monsters. The flipside is to bring about redemption for even the worst; how hope can transcend the darkness.

If these sound like any other type of books, you’re not wrong. The vampire can be found in every genre now, from Romance to Horror.

If vampires are found to be every type of protagonist to any type of antagonist, what does this mean for the future of vampires? In some cases we’ll see them as not only “other” but also alien. In others, full integration. Vampires are not going away. They are here to stay, and are finding their way into every genre possible. There is no limit to where the vampire is going. It’s all in the imagination of the author. Since imagination is boundless, the vampire IS immortal.

Cheers!

Karen Dales
Award Winning Author

"The Chosen Chronicles" are now $.99 for each eBook.
(also available in Trade Paperback)

Amazon/Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Karen-Dales/e/B004TG6U1Y/
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/karen-dales
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/KarenDales.

Order of The Chosen Chronicles:
Changeling: Prelude to The Chosen Chronicles
Angel of Death: Book One of The Chosen Chronicles
Shadow of Death: Book Two of The Chosen Chronicles
(Soon To Be Released - Thanatos: Book Three of The Chosen Chronicles)

Keep up to date with me and my writing on:
Website – http://karendales.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/KarenDalesAuthor
Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/karendales
Paranormal & Dark Fantasy Writers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/275723322475302/

Kelley Armstrong, #1 New York Times Best Selling Author says of Shadow of Death, "... dark...compelling ...that will keep readers turning the pages well past bedtime."