Cornelia Quick

In recent months, Amazon has been tightening the bolts on their “search restrictions” for some titles (colloquially called, among writers of spicy stories, “the dungeon”). Books with covers, titles, and blurbs in the “problematic” zone won’t show up in general search results, but will show up if you select “Books”.

Here’s an example: If I do a general search for “lake cabin swinger” (one of the topics I return to again and again … what can I say, I like cabins! And swingers!), one of my books, an omnibus collection of “Mapping the Boundaries of Love,” will show up:

But, if I select “Books” in the search bar, I also get “The Night of the Storm,” a book that got hit with the “search restrictions” when I spiced up the cover a couple of weeks ago (and which now has a less spicy cover but is still in the dungeon):

For writers, this means we miss out on some organic sales if people aren’t selecting the “Books” dropdown. And for readers, this means that you’re not seeing all of the titles that match your query.

Based on purely anecdotal evidence (from not only me, but from other writers with a lot more experience than me in this space), the rules for what might put a book into the restricted zone are becoming much more expansive. In the last month, I’ve gone from having no books in the dungeon to having four or five. And the things that will get your book restricted are not well defined at all: the cover that I put on “The Night of the Storm” was not really racy at all (I’ve got a little article about the ordeal on The Eroticist’s Notebook), and I think one book (Spring Break Binge!) landed there because it has “Erotic” in the subtitle (though many of my books do). It’s inconsistent, and it’s frustrating, but there’s very little that writers can do about it.

Except to let readers know that when you’re looking for spicy books, make sure you’ve got that “Books” option selected to be sure you’re getting the widest array of choices.

Here’s a nice little reminder that Natalie Hothorne put together (and if you’re not reading her, you should be!):