Self prudishing.

I can already hear you wondering what this is.

It’s what the modern and enlightened self-publishing companies are prone to.

You may have a faint recollection of this publication.

It’s turned into one of my very popular books to date, and I’m VERY proud of that, as the story started off as an experiment.

My surprise to see this cover accepted everywhere was immense. And it made me VERY happy. I mean, it’s not every day you see a cover with two, clearly nude people on it, being accepted for worldwide publication.

However, the wide world, in this case the company that distributes the book to everywhere except Amazon (for obvious reasons) started seeing a problem when I was ready to release the paperback version of this very book through them.

Now you may wonder why I aimed to do that, because the paperback is already for sale on Amazon. Well, believe it or not, but there are people who will not buy at Amazon. Not ever. Nothing. Which is their good right; I also buy something from a local or at least national store when I can, provided the price difference isn’t insane.

I’ve had several enquiries as to why my paperbacks weren’t for sale elsewhere, so this new print-on-demand service came as a blessing. In disguise. Because once I put up the paperback for review there, they sent me a notice.

Nude images are not allowed for publication. Please remove any photographs or illustrations which depict
nudity from your cover and interior file.

Interesting, as the e-book had no such issues. Of course, I had to point that out to them, knowing exactly what would happen. And yes…

I’m afraid it was necessary to delist Superheroes Volume 1 from digital retailers.

Good to see that people are so predictable. And sad to see that the world is still so hung up about nudity, even when it’s about superheroes.

I bet, had the heroes worn the usual latex or spandex, where everything was much more visible, like nipples and penises, it would have been fine. Add in a few guns and a beheading, and we’re good to go.

So I came up with this monstrosity.

And lo’ and behold, this insanely pixelated version of the cover was immediately approved for the e-book, and it was up for sale again at the e-book stores the next day.

It’s entirely bonkers to see how fanatic people can be about something as simple as nudity, which everyone carries along, even beneath their clothes.

I’ve unpublished the book at that place. I’m looking into publishing it through Kobo directly – let’s see if they have problems with it. If this works, I can try Barnes & Noble directly too. Who knows.

Regardless of what lies in the cover-future of new books, let it be known that you, the readers, are my all-time superheroes. No capes, no nothing, pure as nature created us.