Smashwords – About Erotica Controls

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About Erotica Controls

At Smashwords, we aim to honor your book discovery preferences.

Unless you instruct us otherwise, erotica ebooks are excluded from home page book listings, category listings, search results, and tag queries at the Smashwords website.

You may adjust these settings by clicking the “Filtering” button that appears above on the blue bar, which you’ll find on every Smashwords web page. Or you can return to this page to change your settings.

For example, you may wish to include “mainstream erotica” (the kind of erotica carried by all major ebook stores) but exclude taboo erotica. Or, you may choose to allow all forms of erotica to appear in your search results.

This ability to customize viewing preferences is enabled by the cooperation of Smashwords authors and publishers.

When authors and publishers publish books at Smashwords, we require them to categorize their books accurately. If the book is erotica, it must be categorized as such.

Accurate ebook categorization is essential to the operation of any bookstore. Categorization is what allows readers to visit a virtual shelf on any topic and find what they’re looking for.

Even if a reader chooses to have erotica books removed from their book search results, these books will remain accessible to the reader if they arrive to that book’s page via a direct hyperlink pointing to it from outside Smashwords, or if they’re viewing an author’s or publisher’s profile page at Smashwords.

When visiting Smashwords book pages, erotica titles are labeled as such, and denote whether or not they contain any taboo themes. These labels appear on the book's listing page underneath the book’s title. Specific taboo themes found in the book, if any, will be listed below the book’s categorization.

Ebooks Labeled "Adult"

When authors and publishers publish books at Smashwords, we also ask them to specify if the book is suitable for children under the age of 18.

Often, these books are not of an erotic nature, yet they may contain themes inappropriate for younger readers. Common examples include thriller or horror novels that contain extreme violence.

As of November 2018, Smashwords no longer excludes these “Adult” books from standard book searches because these books are typically found in all mainstream bookstores.

Similar to how we display erotica, if a book contains adult themes, not suitable for minors, a notification will display on the book's detail page immediately below the title.

How to Report Incorrectly Categorized Books

Although Smashwords requires authors and publishers to accurately categorize their books, errors do happen. We welcome readers to report books they believe are incorrectly categorized. To report such a book, click the “Report this book” link you’ll find at the bottom of every book listing page.

Thank you for helping make Smashwords comfortable and enjoyable for all readers!

Update Preferences

Your Current Settings: Exclude erotica — Blocks erotica books from appearing on the home page and in search results.

"Mainstream" vs "Taboo" Erotica

Conventional industry-standard book classification systems do a poor job of distinguishing mainstream erotica from taboo erotica. This makes it difficult for retailers and readers to distinguish one from the other. At Smashwords, we carry a wide variety of legal erotica, including books that contain taboo themes.

In September 2017 we implemented new erotica classification requirements for Smashwords authors and publishers.

The purpose of this effort is to provide retailers and their customers greater transparency about a book’s categorization. This erotica categorization policy was announced in a Smashwords Blog post titled Smashwords Implements New Classifications for Erotic Fiction

Below is a summary of “Taboo” themes and their definitions. These definitions were developed in close consultation with our largest retail partners to ensure uniform policy enforcement across our distribution network.

Erotica titles which have been certified by their authors or publishers as containing none of the themes listed below are considered "mainstream erotica" and will be shown if readers select the "Include mainstream erotica" option from the filter.

Books containing one or more of the themes listed below are considered "taboo erotica," and these, along with older erotica or erotic romance books which have not yet been certified, will be filtered out of a reader’s Smashwords search results unless the reader selects the "Include all erotica" option.

“Taboo” theme definitions

Age play - One or more consenting adult characters role playing, pretending to be babies or children.
Bestiality - Sexual relations between humans and real-world animals (sex with Big Foot, dinosaurs, shape shifters and other imaginary creatures is not bestiality).
Dubious Consent (dubcon) - A common and popular theme in mainstream fiction. Dubcon explores the gray area between consent and non-consent. Not clear if the receiver of the sexual act was fully on board or not at the time of the act. Most major retailers carry dubcon erotica.
Incest or pseudo-incest - Sexual relations between family members, whether biologically or non-biologically related. Includes stepbrother, stepsister and step-anyone.
Nonconsensual sexual slavery - Erotic depiction of a person captured or held against their will, such as kidnapping, imprisonment or human trafficking. Not to be confused with BDSM, which is predicated upon informed consent and negotiation between both parties before the act, and which provides safe words so either partner can end the act if it goes too far. If the book adheres to BDSM best practices, we instruct authors and publishers to not classify it as nonconsensual sexual slavery.
Rape for titillation - The dominant theme of this book is rape — whether the rape is by one person or a character is raped by a group of people, i.e. a gang rape or nonconsensual "gang bang" — and it targets readers who are titillated by the fantasy of nonconsensual sexual relations.

The above list is not all inclusive. There are many other taboo themes that have never been allowed at Smashwords. For a full summary of Smashwords erotica policies, please review Section 9f of the Smashwords Terms of Service.