Something has changed at Amazon, and it is not good.*
Over the past several weeks, many romance titles have begun returning the same message in Amazon’s SiteStripe interface: This product is excluded from the Amazon Associates Program.** Please link to a related product or category instead. The books remain available for purchase across all formats. Their retail pages load normally. What has changed is that Amazon will no longer allow affiliates to earn commissions for recommending them.
That may sound like a technical adjustment, but it is not a small one. Amazon Associates underwrites much of the online book ecosystem. A great deal of book coverage—reviews, recommendation sites, curated lists, newsletters—is sustained by affiliate income. When a book is excluded from the program, it is not banned, but it is removed from the financial structure that makes it easier for readers to find and hear about it.
The exclusions do not appear to be random although the implementation still is.*** I began tracking the pattern after noticing that titles I had linked to for years were suddenly un-linkable. I expanded my check to a decade of top picks from All About Romance, and roughly ten percent are now excluded. The correlation is striking. These are not fringe erotica titles. They are mainstream romances from major publishers. The common denominator is simply that they contain on-page sex.
Examples include Uncommon Passion by Anne Calhoun, Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran, Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey, Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai, A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole, Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, and The First Time at Firelight Falls by Julie Anne Long. These are books that have been widely reviewed, widely recommended, and affiliate-eligible for years. Older backlist titles have flipped alongside new releases, and the exclusions apply across all editions.
Amazon has not announced a policy change. I have contacted Amazon for clarification and have also reached out to several affected authors. As of now, there has been no public explanation. But the practical effect is clear: Amazon appears to be tightening the line on what it considers adult content for affiliate purposes, and books with open-door sex scenes are increasingly being swept—almost certainly by an automated classification system—into that category.
In a moment when sexual content is being policed with renewed zeal, this shift feels ominous. Amazon is not removing these books from sale, but it is making them harder to sustain in the recommendation economy. That is not censorship in the blunt sense, but it is pressure, and pressure works.
If Amazon has changed its standards, it should say so plainly. This is a company that accounts for roughly half of all print book sales in the United States and the overwhelming majority of the e-book market—by some estimates more than two-thirds, and closer to four-fifths when Kindle Unlimited is included. When Amazon–will Google be next?–decides that ordinary, consensual sex in a mainstream romance novel is too risky to support through its affiliate program, it redefines the boundaries of acceptable promotion.It’s not a stretch to worry that mechanism could be expanded to narrow other categories–political and religious beliefs, for example– just as easily. When a corporation with this reach decides which books are too dangerous to incentivize, that is censorship. We should all be paying attention.
* I first read about this here. Romance authors are beginning to speak out about this issue as well.
** Amazon Associates is Amazon’s affiliate marketing program, which allows websites and creators to earn a commission by linking to products sold on Amazon.
*** Many books that are very graphic sexually are still available. Even within series, the prohibition varies.
It’s definitely a form of censorship, as in suppressions of information, and very like banning books from school/public libraries. Both are trying to discourage consumption of certain types of books, removing them from the places (or platforms) where they are most easily accessible and widely used. You don’t have to remove something entirely to censor it.
Thanks for bringing this to light.
Thank Christine! She sent me the article I cited.
Thank you, Christine!
It’s worth noting that violent books, especially those with extreme violence against women, are still in the affiliate program. I’ve looked at books by Karin Slaughter, James Patterson, Bret Easton Ellis, and more are all still available.
Because of course they are… it’s like TV, flash a bit of skin and the pearl clutchers be clutchin’. Blow someone’s head off and nobody bats an eyelid.
Yep. This has always made me insane.
This is shocking. So it’s OK for, say, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books which contain a lot of violence, but not what some AI bot (probably) deems a bit sexy? Is someone deciding that “obscenity” as defined under the First Amendment applies to, for example, Meredith Duran? Crazy. And worrying. Wonder what’s next. Sadly, Amazon has most of its users over a hypothetical barrel.
I think book stores will survive this. But those who promote books, especially love stories, will be even more thin on the ground without this source of financial support.
This reminds me of when PayPal decided to stop processing payments for “adult” materials — but they were including erotic romance eBook publishers (and authors) in that category. So the publishers and authors were finding their funds frozen. But not all erotic romance publishers were affected (because they this was done clumsily).
But this one seems even more egregious because it’s underhanded and because Amazon is so big. And because they could do something even worse next. And because it’s harder to find a contact in big online companies and say, “Stop doing this!”
I have read the first place you mention, and they say
Amazon has implemented a significant policy change: product-level “ASIN” data will no longer be provided for products Amazon classifies as “unsafe.”
Why sex on the page is unsafe? What’s the risk that must be avoided? What do they think happens if you read those books? I just don’t get it.
Of the seven books you mention, I’ve read and enjoyed six of them. So what’s the risk I took by reading those books? It’s utterly stupid. How can reading books be unsafe?
It might encourage you to:
Believe a good sexual experience includes the female orgasm.
Believe that men and women are equals.
Believe that love is love and that means all kinds of relationships are equally valid.
Believe that sex is a phenomenal thing.
Believe that sexual agency is key.
Honestly, the list of the ways you could be “mislead” are endless…..
That’s appalling. And even more problematic given “Heated Rivalry” has just exploded in popularity. I agree about the double-standard re violence and sex, which is insane and pervasive. Why be so concerned about portrayals of consensual sex? Why is “Game of Thrones” OK, but not “Uncommon Passion”?
Have you read Uncommon Passion? It’s just chock full of female pleasure. Surely that is dangerous….
I’d laugh, except there are people who genuinely think that way.
And in case you’re not clear about where this is coming from…..
(from today’s NYT)
“Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson, who has argued that wives should submit to their husbands, women should be denied the vote and Christian enslavers were on “firm scriptural ground,” led a worship service at the Pentagon this week at the invitation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”
This is obviously grim news. For those who love to read books in the ebook format, I would definitely recommend not putting your eggs all in one basket. I bought a Kobo a few years ago and I really like it. I still use my Kindle (some books are only available on Amazon) but it’s important to consider the future. Kobo is a Canadian company which is owned by a Japanese conglomerate. So I am not arguing it’s a pure choice. But it’s one step away from Amazon. And I think the company is safer. I also quit Kindle Unlimited. The AI slop problem will probably get worse so it’s best to bid goodbye now.
This is just my idea for individuals. It doesn’t solve the problem but it makes me feel more in control. But I just knew romance was going to be in the crosshairs! I have had a bad feeling about this ever since the book bans accelerated.
It is tough if you love digital. Amazon sells something like 85% of them. And it’s become a company that is completely unanswerable to customers.
Apparently some books that acknowledge the Holocaust are also being banned.
Here’s one. The fact that this is considered violent or offensive is horriying.
Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History
by Olivia Campbell
I did complain to Amazon about this policy. Here’s what they said:
Pardon me for being somewhat skeptical about their reply. I’ve been asserting for a while that if the more extreme elements of the conservative movement were ever in a position to do so, whitewashing history and labeling anything sexually positive as “pornography” would be part of their plan to stifle ideas, critical thinking, and intellectual freedom…and here we are. I tells ya, sometimes I feel like Cassandra.