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Follow us on FacebookApple begins censoring books
@ 2012/07/31Apple has decided that the best way to deal with competition is to censor all books that mention its rivals.
The policy appears to be that if you want an ebook to be used in the iTunes store, you cannot mention anything to do with Amazon.
Author Holly Lisle found this out the hard way. She has been penning a series of online writing guides but was surprised when "How To Think Sideways Lesson 6: How To Discover (Or Create) Your Story's Market" was rejected by Apple's iBooks store.
Oddly it was not rejected because the title was rubbish, Apple spiked it because it had "live links" to Amazon.
She removed the links and resubmitted the book, and then Apple rejected it again, telling her that they wouldn't sell her book because it mentioned Amazon.
Needless to say Lisle is miffed. She wrote from her bog that she did not think that this was professional behaviour from a professional market. After all, if Harry Potter had looked for the Horcruxes on Amazon instead of running around in caves full of dead people, the best seller would have been deleted too,
Apple basically wanted her to write a writing course that includes information on publishing and self-publishing but without mentioning Amazon. After all, it is only the place where writers are going to make most of their cash. She said that she was pulling all of her work from the iBookstore.
Amazon still sells lots of Apple stuff.
The policy appears to be that if you want an ebook to be used in the iTunes store, you cannot mention anything to do with Amazon.
Author Holly Lisle found this out the hard way. She has been penning a series of online writing guides but was surprised when "How To Think Sideways Lesson 6: How To Discover (Or Create) Your Story's Market" was rejected by Apple's iBooks store.
Oddly it was not rejected because the title was rubbish, Apple spiked it because it had "live links" to Amazon.
She removed the links and resubmitted the book, and then Apple rejected it again, telling her that they wouldn't sell her book because it mentioned Amazon.
Needless to say Lisle is miffed. She wrote from her bog that she did not think that this was professional behaviour from a professional market. After all, if Harry Potter had looked for the Horcruxes on Amazon instead of running around in caves full of dead people, the best seller would have been deleted too,
Apple basically wanted her to write a writing course that includes information on publishing and self-publishing but without mentioning Amazon. After all, it is only the place where writers are going to make most of their cash. She said that she was pulling all of her work from the iBookstore.
Amazon still sells lots of Apple stuff.
