The controversy over The Corroding Empire just gets stranger and stranger.
Amazon KDP has given Castalia House’s new science fiction parody more green and red lights than a drag racing track.
First it was thought that the book had been pulled at the behest of Tor Books, publisher of The Collapsing Empire.
Suspicion also fell on Collapsing Empire author John Scalzi, who tweeted this message the same day:
However, details emerged last night that neither Tor, Scalzi, nor Amazon per se were to blame for The Corroding Empire’s publication delays. Castalia House Lead Editor Vox Day explained:
UPDATE: Since some people seem to want to go on the warpath, let me be perfectly clear here: Amazon is not to blame. I even suspect that it is entirely possible that Tor Books is not to blame either, based on a) when the book was pulled and b) the fact that the book has shown as Live for nearly 24 hours but still does not have a page on any Amazon site. The most likely scenario, in my opinion, is a rogue low-level SJW employee, possibly two, in a specific department.
I have already spoken to the manager of one department and they have begun to investigate why Corrosion is Live but not available. They’ve done everything we asked and we have no problem with the way we have been treated.
Today, Vox announced that Corrosion (The Corroding Empire Book 1) was finally live on KDP.
As we suspected, there appear to have been internal shenanigans taking place at Amazon, as one or more SJWs appear to have abused their positions to interfere with our ability to sell THE CORRODING EMPIRE.
We’re still working with Amazon to sort out exactly who was responsible for precisely what, and to establish what, if anything, legitimately needed to be changed according to their guidelines. This should all be nailed down by the end of the day, but in the meantime, you can now order the book and post reviews again.
The Corroding Empire isn’t out of the woods yet, because following that conversation, it was blocked again, reinstated again and blocked a third time in short order.
Here is where the matter stands as of this writing:
UPDATE: Finally got to speak to a supervisor. She’s not only escalated the matter to legal, but has assured me that the book will be unblocked, stay unblocked, and that the matter will be fully investigated. It’s not just the three blocks, the culprit(s) also put the book on the Excluded list for Amazon Associates, which prevents others from being paid when someone buys the book.
The publisher insists that the issue is with rogue elements within KDP quality control and not with Amazon itself. If so, we could be witnessing a civil war within the world’s largest book distributor. However the situation gets sorted out, the resolution should be informative for publishers, authors, and readers alike.
UPDATE: So much winning!
Ohhh this just keeps getting better and better! Not only has the war gone global, it's TEARING AMAZON APART, LISA!
Well, at least we know it's not part of any tomfoolery on the part of Amazon as a company, and that's good news for all indie and small publishers everywhere. Hopefully the jackanapes responsible for this will be fired and Amazon will continue to treat Castalia House as they should. A business partner that makes them enough money to justify giving them a platform.
You hit the nail on the head. Of CH's 70+ books on Amazon, only their newest is affected, and only during the approval process. This tells us that the piston that's not firing is somewhere in mid-level Kindle Store QC.
And the book is blocked again…
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And now the page is missing entirely again.
And the attack kittens at io9 have been unleashed…
It's going to hard not to assume some sort of whisper deal on this.
Yes, io9. Please keep giving Castalia House free publicity.
Corrosion (The Corroding Empire Book 1) is live in the Kindle Store. You can find it using the links in the post above.
Bonus: the SJW review trolls are already leaving 1-star attack reviews. Their inept trolling and the comments on their fake reviews are laugh-out-loud performance art!
Brian
Forgive my innocence but how can reader leave a review of a book that technically isn'the available yet?
I'm deeply bemused by the return of the Index of forbidden books. The Catholic Church was pillored for centuries but the SJWs get a pass?
Nope no way
The preorders were still delivered. It's been possible to read The Corroding Empire for days, now.
"The Catholic Church was pillored for centuries but the SJWs get a pass?"
That's called unprincipled exception. Same deal with Leftists tarring all priests as pedophiles while giving standing ovations to Roman Polanski.
A smart stance on Amazon's part. Make money off of everyone, and don't play favorites.
Right. As much as some are itching to frame this as a case of Evil Megacorp Picking on the Little Guy, Jeff Bezos still cares much more about getting paid than playing politics with suppliers.
If this were Amazon going to war with Castalia House, we'd have seen all of CH's books pulled. This is an open and shut case of rogue SJWs in Kindle Direct QC overreaching their grasp.
Well I hope that the rogue elements will be fired. It'seems not up to them to decide what books get published not. If these people are so passionate go found your own publishing company virtue signalling all you want.
But if you work for someone you comply with the rea.sonable expectation originating from your job
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