By Erika Icon

YNOT – E-book publishing is all the rage, thanks in large part to services like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing that allow Average Joes and Janes to circumvent the traditional publishing machine and take their wares directly to consumers. With the runaway success of E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey – a now-traditionally-published novel that began as fan faction — consumers are lusting for more and harder-core erotica … and adult entertainment entrepreneurs are more than happy to oblige.

The problem? Most self-publishing platforms specifically prohibit hardcore pornography. Amazon, the biggest in the e-book creation and distribution realms, is at the top of that list.

Amazon actively filters for porn in an effort to keep adult material out of its coveted “best sellers” listings for both video and digital print. Despite the best efforts of “The World’s Biggest Bookstore” to hide the smut, though, Kindle owners have become remarkably adept at ferreting out e-publications that deliver what they seek. Self-published titles marketed by entities including Camera Erotica Publications and ErotiPics — most of them with scant storylines and tons of naked photos — sell extremely well at a price point of about $2.99. Some even are available via Amazon Prime’s lending library.

Owners of Barnes & Noble’s competing e-book reader, Nook, are no more disadvantaged. The same entities raking in the dough on Amazon often publish the same material for B&N customers through the PubIt! Nook Books system.

Apple users find a far smaller selection in Apple’s iBook store, and when they do, titles and covers are much tamer than what can be found on Amazon and B&N. Apple’s hard-line stance against adult material is well documented, though, and the company strictly enforces a lengthy review process for all new submissions. Amazon and Barns & Noble take a more reactive approach, usually evaluating e-publications only after complaints have been lodged.

CNET emailed Amazon about one of the Camera Erotica titles, and the e-book promptly disappeared from the store. Other titles by the same entity remain available for purchase. In an email to CNET, Amazon revealed it uses “proprietary software to check for content and copyright issues when e-books are submitted.” Humans become involved only when necessary. Amazon declined to reveal how many Kindle Direct books are human-screened or how much porn the company has deleted.

“We have processes and systems — both automated and manual — to detect and remove books that do not adhere to our posted Content Guidelines,” an official statement to CNET noted, adding that Amazon has “rejected or removed thousands of such offending titles.”

The company also indicated it expects to “keep improving our approach. We are also continuously improving the customer experience for all the content we do sell.”

Nevertheless, titles like Terrific Tits: Volume 1 remain available under Amazon’s self-policing protocol, sometimes for months. Part of the reason for that is KDP’s quick turnaround time, which is one of the reasons for the platform’s popularity. Since the vast majority of Amazon’s e-books are mainstream and getting new products to market quickly carries a significant financial incentive for both Amazon and the publisher, Amazon understandably is loath to lengthen the waiting period. Currently, an average of 12 hours separates the moment a publisher clicks “publish” in the KDP interface and the moment the e-book is available to consumers. Inappropriate content typically is called out in reader reviews and feedback.

E-book sales increase monthly while sales of more traditional reading matter continue to decline. Some analysts predict the near-extinction of “dead-tree” books within as few as five years. The adult industry, typically a driver of new technologies, has found creative ways to distribute its content in every other medium. Doubtless porn entrepreneurs will surmount e-publishing’s hurdles with equal relish … even if the industry has to sneak up on the system.