Quaraun
and
the Amazon Adult Filter

The Quaraun Books
&
The Continued Harassment, Bullying, Defamation, Libel, Slander, Impersonation, Intimidation, Threats, Fraud, Defalcation, Misappropriation, Vandalism, & Similar Irregularities
Caused By Their Publication
Continues As Outraged Kboards Members
Make Demands For Amazon
To Remove My Books For Sale
or
Why My Quaraun Books Vanished Off
The Amazon Website For 9 Days in March 2015

QUESTION: I can't find your Quaraun books on Amazon. I tried searching for them but they are not coming up. They were there yesterday and now they are gone. How do I find these books on Amazon?

ANSWER: Yes, I know. Amazon has temporarily (hopefully) removed them from public access, stuffed them in the Erotica section and slapped the "adult filter" over them so that they no longer come up for sale to the general public, while complaints about, so called "pedophile Erotica" are being reviewed. 

Someone complained about the Quaraun series. Don't know who or why, (although I do know who it was who has been running all over the internet falsely accusing my books of being what she termed "pedophile Erotica") but yes, the Quaraun series is not going to come up in search results, because the "ADULT" tag has been slapped onto it.

This is actually an interesting phenomena, you see, this the the first time I've ever heard of a NON-EROTICA book, being bitch slapped by Amazon.

What happens is, Amazon deams some books to have cover art that is "too risque" to be viewed by the general public, so they put a filter known as "the ADULT tag" on the book, so that no one under 18 can accidentally find it and look at it's naughty cover art.

Yes, I did say cover art.

Let's look at that naughty cover art, shall we?

Yeah... we got a naked Unicorn, and naked horse, and a naked statue in a graveyard.

Yep, I'm as puzzled as you are.

Amazon put the "Adult" tag on a non Erotica book? I have never seen that happen before. This is new. 

People who have actually read my books, know I don't write Erotica. And yet the adult filter is only placed on Erotica books, so something is screwy here.

Quaraun got bitch slapped by Amazon. (March 5, 2015) Every volume. They just put the “adult” tag on the whole series.

I have never seen a non-Erotica book get the adult tag before.

I know it’s not the covers, because there’s unicorns and horses on the covers. Cartoon horses at that.

And it’s not the keywords because the keywords are “Elf, fairies, phooka, unicorn, wizardry”

That means someone complained. Someone specifically contacted Amazon and complained about the books. Uhm...okay...why? 

Interesting it happened right after 1 author created 52 fake Amazon accounts, gave each volume 52 fake 1 stars, and then Amazon deleted all her accounts for ToS violation.

*Hi Kendra*

So, the members of KBoards are STILL lashing out I see.  Is this really the type of petty thing these people have resorted to? I mean, really? Are they really that childish?

*shakes head*

7 months now. They've been pulling these sick twisted little stunts like this for 7 months now. (Kendra has been pulling them for 9 years now. I expect this sort of brainless behavior from her.) The sad part is, is that I have no clue why they are so hung up on me an my books. God! What in the hell did I write in these books that they hate them so much? I don't get it? Don't these people have anything better to do? Are their lives really that empty and meaningless that they have nothing more important to do with their time?

7 freaking months? Don’t you guys ever get tired of bothering me? What is your frigging problem? Good God, this is stalking you know. Look up the definition of stalking. You Kboards creeps are stalking me and I'm sick of it. Will you just get out of my life and leave me alone? Some people just don't have a life.

I guess I’ll go update my website now. I have thoughts and opinions on this, the newest attack on my books, by some very annoying authors who apparently have unicorn horns rammed up their asses, must go write about this. 

Yes, you know I’m going to write Unicorn killing a character by ramming his horn up their ass. I just have to. That’s all there is to it. You know, I did just write a scene today, with him skewering human heads on his horn… wouldn’t be too hard to alter that scene. :P

For those who don’t know, Quaraun is a gay, transvestite, Autistic Gypsy, and there exist a handful of religious do-goodie “Christian” authors who are self-righteously indignant  over the fact that such a character exists. Some are screaming anti-gay rants, some are screaming anti-Gypsy rants, some are screaming anti-tranny rants, some are screaming anti-retard rants, ad for some unknown reason some are screaming anti-Erotica rants (about a book that isn't even Erotica to begin with!) Each of them has a complaint, some multiple complaints. They are trying to stage a boycott of my books, which would funny if it wasn’t so danged annoying.

Most of the offenders stopped when confronted with this, some required cease and desist orders to get them to stop, the three most persistent offenders, who continue to this day to harass me, have now been added to my blacklist.

But, anyways, yes, that does mean the books are no longer showing up in search results unless you search specifically for the title itself now. The series no longer shows up in general search results.

I'll have to ask Amazon what the reason was for the tag being added, because as far as I know it's only used on Erotica, and this is not Erotica.

But yes, as of March 5, 2015, The Quaraun books are all moved into Erotica and had the adult filter put on them. They are no longer available by general search on Amazon and can ONLY be accessed via clicking a direct link from an outside site linking directly to the sales page. (That's what the "adult filter" does. You can search for Erotica books on amazon, but an "adult filtered" Erotica book is one that has been de-listed from the Amazon website and can only be found via direct-link access.) Essentially what the "adult filter" does is kill sales 100%, because once the adult filter is placed on your book, the only way for someone to buy it is if the author themselves gives the link to the sales page to the customer.

The adult filter is a really, really, really, really, REALLY bad thing to have put on your book, because it means NO ONE has access to buying your book anymore.

Basically your book has been removed from sale to the general public and if you want to buy it, you have to contact the author and ask the author to send you a link to the sale page, so you can buy the book. It is absolutely the worst thing you could have happen to your book.

Needless to say I am very upset that this has happened, because what it means is that basically the Quaraun books are no longer available for sale. You can still buy them, but you have to come directly to my website, find a link to the sale page, and buy them that way. Well, how many people even know to come to my site to look for a link to the sales page? Not many.

It means that the books have gone from 2 to 5 copies sold per title per week, to absolutely ZERO sales at all because they have been removed from the general search index and are no longer available for sale to the general public. You really got to hate an author an awful lot to do something this hate filled, evil, and vindictive to their books. 

UPDATE:  March 10, 2015

I have heard back from Amazon on one of the books. Into the Swamp of Death has been manually reviewed (meaning someone at Amazon's customer service department has physically read the book to determine if the contents are Erotica and if it requires and adult filter or not.)

They have determined that the book is not Erotica and was moved to the Erotica department by mistake and it has now been taken out of the Erotica department, and the adult filter removed.

Amazon is very good about fixing problems. And after 5 days in review, Amazon has informed me that they have reviewed my book, I am correct, it is not Erotica, it doesn't belong in Erotica, they apologized for the inconvenience, and tell me they have moved it to the category they feel is "most appropriate".

I had originally placed it in:  Kindle Store  › Kindle eBooks  › Science Fiction & Fantasy  › Fantasy  › Epic

After someone complained, it was moved without review to:  Books  › Literature & Fiction  › Erotica  › Fantasy

After "careful review" (someone at Amazon actually reading the book) Amazon has decided that Into The Swamp of Death  belongs in:  Books  › Literature & Fiction  › Genre Fiction  › Horror  › Dark Fantasy

Uhm...okay. That's not where I had put it originally, but, yep, I can see how it could be seen as Horror and Dark Fantasy. So, Amazon has officially declared that the Quaraun series IS NOT Erotica and is Dark Fantasy.

I am still waiting to hear back about the other 2, but at least one of them has been put back in general search results.

UPDATE:  March 14, 2015

I have heard back from Amazon - the adult filter is removed from Screaming Unicorn and it's been moved out of Erotica to Dark Fantasy where it belongs. 

So, 2 of the 3 books that had been inaccurately moved to the Erotica section and adult filtered are now fixed - waiting to hear back on 1 more.

I would say this might explain all the questions I've been getting asking if the books were Erotica, except for the fact that they were only moved into Erotica a week ago and I've been getting these questions since last September. Whoever it is telling people these books are Erotica, I wish they'd stop it. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is, having to keep answering the same question over and over again: no, it's not Erotica. No, it's not Erotica. No, it's not Erotica...no, please, stop asking, no, it's not. Sheese. I mean, good God, Where are people finding information telling them that this is Erotica and WHO is saying it? It's really annoying.

Somebody is misrepresenting my books and I really don't like it. By misrepresenting my books, they are misrepresenting me and my reputation and I don't like that.

I can't help but be reminded of the Kboards incident and their threat to:

"let's dry up her (book) sales"

"we need to kill her career"

"Let's destroy her career"

"people like her need to be shot in the head"

If you want to dry up someone's book sale and essentially kill their career on Amazon, there is no better way to do it then to report their books to Amazon, lying to say the books are Erotica, not listed as Erotica, and demand the adult filter be put on them.

A week before the adult filter was put on the Screaming Unicorn, it had a sales rank of 705,143.

After just 9 days with the adult filter on it, it's sales rank is now: 2,061,964.

Yeah, THAT is what the adult filter does to a book.  If you are that mean, that evil, that hateful, you CAN kill an author's career by demanding Amazon put the adult filter on a book, because the adult filter puts a 100% freeze on sales.

If you have steady sales (even low steady sales) and sudden one day your sales stop short and you have 100% sales - then check for the adult filter. Number one cause of sudden 100% drop in sales is the adult filter. It is the most horrible thing you can have happen to your book.

Unfortunately, if an author, pretending to be a reader, requests the adult filter put on a book, Amazon, DOES NOT review the book, and simply puts the adult filter on it. Sadly, there has been a rash of unscrupulous and unprofessional authors, contacting Amazon requesting the adult filter be placed on other authors books, to sink sales rank (the theory is, if the other authors' books sink, their books will rise. It doesn't work that way, but that's the black hat belief behind the practice.) Sadly, you can go to places like the Warrior Forum, and find PDFs for sale which tell you step-by-step how to do this dirty pool tactic. 

Since the WF started selling these How-To guides (in 2013) there has been a rash of THOUSANDS of authors, getting the adult filter inaccurately placed on their books. It's a horrible hate-scam tactic of trying to boost sales to your own books, by attempting to kill sales to other author's books, and it's a hugely popular trend the past 2 years. I've had dozens of my author friends get attacked by other authors this way, but this is the first time it's happened to me.

It is important to note that the adult filter is ONLY placed on Erotica books, and in order to get it put on a non-Erotica book, someone has to contact Amazon and say "AUTHOR NAME is putting their Erotica books in non-Erotica categories" - Amazon then moves the books to Erotica - WITHOUT DOING A MANUAL REVIEW. The end result is, there are quite a few books in the Erotica department, that are not Erotica and often, the author has no clue their books were moved to the Erotica section.

NOTE: in your KDP dashboard, it'll still say the books are listed in the original categories. To find out if your book has been moved to Erotica, try running a Countdown Deal, and look for the note which says: 

"At this time, books that contain mature or erotic content are not eligible for advertising. See advertising guidelines" in the "Run an ad campaign" section. Right beside the Countdown Deal section.

YES! Not only does the adult filter block your books out of showing up in the search results, but it also blocks you out of the marketing dashboard too, and doesn't allow you to run promotions for your book!

Basically if the adult filter gets slapped on your book, you're screwed. You ARE NOT selling another copy of that book again EVER!

The thing is, the adult filter is there for a purpose. It is SUPPOSED to be used, to keep X-rated book cover images from showing up in the search results.

It allows Erotica authors, to publish their books on Amazon, and then created create links to the books on their own personal homepage, allowing Erotica authors to sell books that normally aren't allowed to be sold on Amazon.

The adult filter, prevents the books from showing up on Amazon, while allowing an author to run the own "adult book store" on their own web site. So, the author would be hosting an 18+ porn site, and be able to make money selling their XXX books.

In it's intended purpose the adult filter is a good thing, because it allows X-rated adult books to be sold, allowing authors to make an income. Before the adult filter existed, authors of XXX/adult books had to create their own PDFs or just post the stories online for free. The adult filter now allows them to actually publish those books and earn an income.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who are abusing the system, and are using the adult filter to sink the sales of books that should have the adult filter on them at all. It's a very low brow black hat tactic.

Someone specifically contacting Amazon and making such a request,  is the ONLY way a book can get the adult filter put on it 7 months after publication (Screaming Unicorn was published 7 months prior to the adult filter being placed on it). Normally Amazon would put the filter on the book PRIOR to publication, when they review the book, after the author submits it for publication.

There are 4 authors who, for several months now have been champaigning to as they put it: 

"let's dry up her (book) sales"

"we need to kill her career"

"Let's destroy her career"

In October they tried to stage a mini protest and boycott n a forum for writers. They then did the same thing on 2 other forums for writers (that I know of. I'm not sure if they did it on any other forums or not.)

One of them is fairly local (a 2 hour drive from me) and so staged an offline protest as well, along with vandalism of our family's farm (doing $15,000 in damages to the town, in addition to the damages to our property.)

In December, the same local one, then created 52 fake accounts on Amazon and gave Screaming Unicorn and Fire Mountain EACH 52 one star reviews, and then had a 300+ comment argument with herself in the comments of said reviews. I don't read my book reviews so I was unaware this was happening until, I found out about it via a friend who had read them and asked what in the heck was this author talking about. Before I got a chance to read all of the comments, Amazon deleted all 52 of that author's fake accounts.

This has been going on, since October, with every few weeks, one of these 4 authors (who may actually all be only one person, I don't any of these authors and none of them use a real author photo, all 4 of them are very much "fake" pennames, and two of them use identical phrases, so I actually suspect it's really only 1 author with 4 different pennames) does something like this.

This, having my non-Erotica books, moved to Erotica and adult filtered, is just the latest of this author's attacks on my books. (And, if you know who I'm talking about - you also know that she has been attacking my books, for 9 years now and her most violent attack included to post a request online for someone to kill me, she put my home address in the post and a few days later October 18, 2006, someone put a grease fryer bomb in my house, which left my family homeless and me and my dad both crippled for the rest of our lives.) 

I wish I knew who this woman was and what it was this woman had against me, because it's mind boggling to me, why it is she pulls these stunts. Do you know how maddening it is for someone to spend 9 years doing weird things like this, and you have no idea who they are or why they are doing it? None of this makes any sense to me. *sigh* Oh, well. I suppose eventually she'll have to make it known what exactly it is her motive behind all this is, but until then, there's not much I can do but continue to side step her and clean up the messes she keeps dumping in my lap.

Fortunately, if someone is mean enough to do something like this to one of your books, there is a way to fix it, once you discover it has happened.

Here's what you do. In KDP, go to "Contact Us" and tell Amazon that your Non-Erotica book is being listed as Erotica (no need to mention the adult filter) and ask for a manual review of your book. Explain you did not put the book in the Erotica category, it is not Erotica and could someone please review it to verify that your book is in fact not Erotica and then put it back into the category in which you had originally placed it.

Amazon is very good about fixing problems. And after 9 days in review, Amazon has informed me that they have reviewed my book, I am correct, it is not Erotica, it doesn't belong in Erotica, they apologized for the inconvenience, and tell me they have moved it to the category they feel is "most appropriate".

I had originally placed it in:  Kindle Store  › Kindle eBooks  › Science Fiction & Fantasy  › Fantasy  › Epic

After someone complained, it was moved without review to:  Books  › Literature & Fiction  › Erotica  › Fantasy

After "careful review" (someone at Amazon actually reading the book) Amazon has decided that Screaming Unicorn belongs in:  Books  › Literature & Fiction  › Genre Fiction  › Horror  › Dark Fantasy

Uhm...okay. That's not where I had put it originally, but, yep, I can see how it could be seen as Horror and Dark Fantasy. So, once again, Amazon has officially declared that the Quaraun series IS NOT Erotica and is Dark Fantasy.

UPDATE:  March 14, 2015 (an hour later)

Okay - that was fast - while I was typing that last update - I just got another email from Amazon - okay - so all 3 of the books that got moved to Erotica last week and adult filtered, are back out of Erotica and filter removed - YAY!

Interestingly while Amazon declared Screaming Unicorn and Swamp of Death as Dark Fantasy, they have put Vampire Leprechaun in Epic Fantasy.

Amazon is very good about fixing problems. And after 9 days in review, Amazon has informed me that they have reviewed my book, I am correct, it is not Erotica, it doesn't belong in Erotica, they apologized for the inconvenience, and tell me they have moved it to the category they feel is "most appropriate".

I had originally placed it in:  Kindle Store  › Kindle eBooks  › Science Fiction & Fantasy  › Fantasy  › Epic

After someone complained, it was moved without review to:  Books  › Literature & Fiction  › Erotica  › Fantasy

After "careful review" (someone at Amazon actually reading the book) Amazon has decided that Vampire Leprechaun belongs in:  Kindle Store  › Kindle eBooks  › Science Fiction & Fantasy  › Fantasy  › Epic

Hey! That's where I had it to begin with! Yay!  So, once again, Amazon has officially declared that the Quaraun series IS NOT Erotica and is in fact Fantasy.

So... it's now no longer just me saying this series is NOT Erotica. Amazon has manually reviewed the Quaraun series and has decided it to be Dark Fantasy.

And, thankfully, after 9 long days locked away in the adult filter dungeon, all of the Quaraun books are now back in general search results! YAY!  

So, I just checked and, yep, the books are back in the Fantasy (Dark for 2 and Epic for the other) department. The adult filter is gone. And the books are once again showing up in general search results, so you can once again access/buy them directly off the Amazon site without having to request a direct link to the sales page from the author anymore. Thank goodness!

I am so glad that is fixed. You have no idea how stressful the last 9 days have been for me, waiting for Amazon to review these books and give me their verdict.

This is a very frustrating issue, because my books ARE my only source of income and, they made an active attempt to have then removed and they did get the books taken offline for a period of 9 days while amazon manually reviewed the situation and then came to the conclusion that it was a false accusation and my books had no reason to be removed and were put back up for sale.

The people behind this CONTINUING attack on my career, are very, very, very hateful people as you can see from the things they are doing. I wish I knew why they were doing this What is it they hate about me and my books so much that they feel they are justified in these actions? It is almost as if they see me and my books as a threat, but I don't see how they could. I have never had a book sell more then 10 copies in a single week, my books are not famous nor are they close to best sellers. With sales that low my my books are of no threat to anyone. None of this makes any sense to me. Normal people don't do things like this to other people. Only some one with a sick, twisted, corropt mind would go out of their way to try to hurt a fellow human. 

But it is now official:

According to Amazon:

THESE BOOKS ARE NOT EROTICA!