Thanks for all of you who read my post yesterday about BookStrand and PayPal. It is a sad situation. Over the last 24 hours many prominent authors have left BookStrand all together, including me. BookStrand also began taking down books yesterday before authors had a chance to do it themselves. The really sad part is that they have not held their own titles to the same standard. Many books published through BookStrand and their partner are still up even though they violate the new TOS.
It also appears that BookStrand changed their Terms of Service without informing authors. It's hard to tell for sure, but there appears to be new restrictions on pseudo incest and barely legal content. Nobody remembers those being their before and the cached page on Google is vastly different. If true, BookStrand violated their TOS and basically broke a contract with their authors, assuming they had a clause that party had to be notified, but I can't find the TOS anymore to verify. Most TOS's, and contracts in general, have that clause. If both parties don't agree, what's the point.
So, where does this leave you? If you are an author, I would avoid BookStrand. I don't believe they support their authors or that they can be trusted. That is purely my opinion, but look at how they treated me and my fellow erotica authors. What genre is next? Who will they censor next time?
If you are a reader and you can no longer find the books and authors you like to read at BookStrand, Smashwords and All Romance ebooks (links to the right ==>) are great alternatives and both actually give more to the author for each sale and it doesn't cost you a penny extra. Of course, if you have a tablet, like an iPad, you can buy just about anywhere if you download the right apps (Kindle, Nook, iBooks, etc.)
I am also in the process of killing my account at PayPal. I will no longer use them for anything. What they are doing is perfectly legal, but that doesn't mean it's right. If they want to enforce their morality on the world, they can do it without my money. I suggest you look into doing the same.
"Goosestepping morons such as yourself should try reading books instead of burning them" - Professor Henry Jones
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