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Amazon Has Shadow-Banned Romance Titles from the Kindle Store

The ebook market owes its existence to the romance genre.

eBooks gave authors a chance to sell the stories readers wanted to buy rather than the stories the gatekeepers wanted to publish, and without romance we would have an ebook market dominated by the Big Five and their pricing policies.

Guess how Amazon is repaying that debt?

By shadow-banning romance titles from the Kindle Store.

I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.

In other words, the ebooks are still being sold, they are just not showing up in rankings and have lost the algorithmic benefit of their previous sales rank.

Update: About 36 hours from my first email, and nearly 12 hours after I published this post, Amazon finally decided how they are going to spin this:

A recent Kindle Store change inadvertently affected the display of sales rank for some titles. We have corrected this issue.

Second Update: I have confirmation from authors on KBoards that their ranks have been restored.

The change in policy was first noticed on 22 March, and it has affected both indie published ebooks as well as ebooks published by traditional publishers.

"While my self-pub BDSM books got hit, it’s also affected publishers like St. Martin’s Swerve imprint as well," one author wrote on KBoards. "I wrote two threesome books for them, Betting on Both and Game On, and both have had their rankings pulled. Dropped my editor at St. Martin’s Press a note – they may not be so happy about having the 'Zon do that to them."

Another author confirmed that even EL Grey got hit with the shadow ban. "I had noticed last night that E.L. James' Grey (pubbed via Random House) is overall-rank stripped too. It’s Book 1 from Christian’s POV. Book 2, Darker, is categorized as Romance, and is #676 overall. Grey is #7 in Erotica, but not on the BS list."

There are also a bunch of reports from authors who say that they checked their respective Author Central pages for their erotica titles, only be be informed that said titles were no longer ranked.

Amazon has confirmed the new policy, telling one author by email:

I’m following up concerning some of your books missing their best sellers ranking.

After hearing from our technical team we have confirmed that this is due to a recent update to the filter option for Erotica ebooks.

All adult themed titles will be filtered from the main category sales rank as part of this update. However, you will still continue to keep all of your category rankings. I know this wasn’t the answer you were looking for but appreciate your understanding on this policy.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

I have attached a screenshot of the email at the end of this post.

Curiously enough, the change in policy only affects the main Amazon site, and not other sites like Amazon UK.

This detail has lead some authors to speculate that Amazon changed its policy in anticipation of the FOSTA bill becoming law. This bill is ostensibly intended to fight sex trafficking, but it has already had unexpected side effects such as Microst enacting a strict PG content policy in Office 365, Skype, and Xbox Live. Reddit has also removed several forums, and Craigslist has nuked its entire personals section.

I cannot confirm that Amazon’s new policy is also a result of the new law, however.

I reached out to Amazon for comment a day before publishing this post.  They were still struggling with how to spin this new policy when this post went live, which is why I do not have a statement from them.

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[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles March 29, 2018 um 2:10 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


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[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


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New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles March 29, 2018 um 2:13 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


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DaveMich March 29, 2018 um 6:41 pm

Another effect of FOSTA is that Google appears to be (my guess) running something against Google Drive accounts and deleting anything that looks like porn.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgwnp/porn-on-google-drive-error

They do have a patent on a type of flesh tone scanner (which is hardly a new idea, but whatever)

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090123064


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[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – SubmitCompanies.com March 29, 2018 um 11:24 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch | Big Money Coach March 30, 2018 um 12:22 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TopTechNewsHub.com March 30, 2018 um 12:30 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Myinsurancesite March 30, 2018 um 3:03 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Welcome March 30, 2018 um 3:07 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles | | Global Web Technologies March 30, 2018 um 3:20 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles | Techlear March 30, 2018 um 3:41 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles | The Suss March 30, 2018 um 4:02 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Tech News Power March 30, 2018 um 6:50 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch – Tech News Nerds March 30, 2018 um 7:16 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles | GREENGROUND IT March 30, 2018 um 8:13 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch March 30, 2018 um 8:15 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Tech Buzz March 30, 2018 um 8:32 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch – Tech Snaq March 30, 2018 um 9:34 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch – Technology Empire March 30, 2018 um 9:41 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch – Tech Innovations News March 30, 2018 um 9:45 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Technology Insider March 30, 2018 um 10:05 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


Erotica writers are finding their work stripped of rankings after Kindle policy change | The Viral Info March 30, 2018 um 11:22 am

[…] novels. It appears only to be affecting those that are also tagged “Erotica.” According to The Digital Reader, the policy quietly took effect on or before March 22, and it is not only affecting […]


Confusion des sens sur le Kindle Store | 24News L'actu 24h/24 – Restez toujours informé March 30, 2018 um 12:01 pm

[…] le manque de communication et d’explication de la part d’Amazon. Plus récemment, le site The Digital Reader aurait cependant obtenu un début de réponse à ce mystère. Amazon aurait lancé une nouvelle […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles | BigTechNewsMix.com March 30, 2018 um 1:27 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


Fair play and censorship. Where do you cross the line? | Greta van der Rol March 30, 2018 um 4:55 pm

[…] into discussion about decisions it makes. However, the online sales giant has stated that it is targeting romance titles, especially erotic stories. At least this time, it’s not just small Indies in the cross-hairs. Even EL James’s new […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Packaging Design Services – Powered by InterDigitel March 30, 2018 um 8:31 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes the coming week, reporting that” I have appreciated numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance names, most notably those names that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list .” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – IT FEED March 31, 2018 um 12:01 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Tech News Park March 31, 2018 um 6:43 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch – Tech Ideas Pro March 31, 2018 um 7:17 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – online store March 31, 2018 um 7:26 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Tech News Project March 31, 2018 um 8:26 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch | VerityMall March 31, 2018 um 9:40 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Technology Scenes April 1, 2018 um 2:36 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch – X TECH NEWS April 1, 2018 um 3:38 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch | Technology Finest April 1, 2018 um 4:02 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCty April 1, 2018 um 6:55 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – Smartecky April 1, 2018 um 8:35 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles – TechCrunch | Viral Media April 2, 2018 um 5:10 am

[…] The Digital Reader adopted the modifications this week, reporting that “I’ve seen quite a few reviews on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a brand new coverage the place some romance titles, most notably these titles that Amazon has recognized as erotica, have been faraway from the Kindle Store best-seller record.” Amazon’s modifications started on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles | TECH WORLD April 2, 2018 um 5:52 am

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


New federal rules blamed in disappearance of Kindle erotica titles | ADMK Agency April 9, 2018 um 11:23 pm

[…] The Digital Reader followed the changes this week, reporting that “I have seen numerous reports on Facebook, KBoards, and elsewhere that Amazon has adopted a new policy where some romance titles, most notably those titles that Amazon has identified as erotica, have been removed from the Kindle Store best-seller list.” Amazon’s changes began on March 22. […]


Ursula June 20, 2018 um 8:26 am

This is nothing new. I wrote Erotica several years ago and only had an Erotica-specific salesrank, but no sales rank in the overall kindle store for all my thirteen titles, of whom many hit the erotica bestseller list in Germany. So Amazon just put the former "Romances" into the Erotica Category, because of the explicit contect. I often see Erotica wrongly listed as Romances, even some very pornographic stuff.
This is not an Amazon problem. Other retailers don’t rank erotica ebooks in their overall store rank.
Here in Germany it is even more funny. We have a new law that prohibits the sale of erotica ebooks before 10 p.m. Erotica print books still can be purchased during the day, because ALL erotica ebooks get a age rating (FSK) of 18 years, while Shades of Grey (the movie) has a age rating (FSK) of 16 years. Erotica ebooks are not treated fair.


The Career Author Podcast: Episode 14 – Our Biggest Mistakes and How We Learned From Them – Story Levels February 23, 2019 um 12:41 pm

[…] https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/03/29/amazon-has-shadow-banned-romance-titles-from-the-kindle-s… […]


Amazon and the End of Free Speech | NoPartySystem.Com February 27, 2019 um 8:18 pm

[…] still on sale. In 2018, BDSM books were briefly removed from the Kindle best-sellers list, but were restored after a public […]


Amazon and the End of Free Speech | EducationNews February 28, 2019 um 6:32 am

[…] still on sale. In 2018, BDSM books were briefly removed from the Kindle best-sellers list, but were restored after a public […]


Amazon and the End of Free Speech – e-Today March 5, 2019 um 12:59 pm

[…] on sale. In 2018, BDSM books were briefly removed from the Kindle best-sellers list, but were restored after a public […]


Amazon and the End of Free Speech | | TimesDirect.TV March 5, 2019 um 7:30 pm

[…] on sale. In 2018, BDSM books were briefly removed from the Kindle best-sellers list, but were restored after a public […]


The Career Author Podcast – Our Biggest Self Publishing Mistakes August 9, 2019 um 3:42 pm

[…] https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/03/29/amazon-has-shadow-banned-romance-titles-from-the-kindle-s… […]


Sarah January 7, 2020 um 11:21 am

I wrote an erotica book…. all have been published. No problems. I get creative in titles, again no problem then today one book that I wrote on a subjjet manner (sex, ….obviously lol. had to do with 2 dudes and a girl.., those have been published before…) and that book was blocked without notice. Wasn’t incest; wasn’t anything. It was a romantic erotica.

What is interesting is that Amazon has MANY titles about threesomes… so my guess it is whoever gets the book to review, if they don’t like it , or feel 'icky' about subject .. they will block without notice and that isn’t fair. I get there are guidelines.. and I follow them. Most authors to. .but the person at amazon reviewing the book if they don’t like it; and it follows the guidelines, then there is no reason to block.


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