Amazon KDP explains search discrepancy with book search

So, KDP got back to me. I had emailed customer support asking if there was a reason that His Belonging - An Erotic Tale was not showing up in general search results from the 'all' category you are in when you log in to Amazon.

My reply stated:
"We have found your Kindle book contains mature content and it will not surface in our general product search results."

I stopped to wonder for a second, all my other books surface in the general search results, including Cthulhu's Caresses which I would've thought would qualify in that category more so then Belonging.

I mean, why would a book that contains a person who voluntarily takes training as a personal slut, someone who willingly and gladly subsumes their will to someone else's, be considered mature when other books that focus on sex primarily don't get these classifications?

Okay, I had a problem keeping a straight face while typing that. I always intellectually understood that sex was becoming more and more a part of the culture, reaching down to an ever-decreasing younger age. I guess intellectual understanding alone wasn't enough. I understand on a slightly deeper level now. If you're old enough to understand what sex is nowadays it invariably becomes a part of your life, even just through discussion with peers.

My ten year old is beginning to show a little interest, and isn't it embarrassing to have to tell a child "No, you can't read what Mommy is writing right now, let's wait until you're a bit older," and have her tell you that she knows all about sex. At least she thinks she does; she was right on a few things and wrong on some others when we had a little chat after that. At least she isn't interested in trying it yet, or so she told me.

Now, while sex has been becoming a part of the culture at a younger and younger age, evidently some of the alternative lifestyles have not, and so they are classified as "mature content". I have to wonder if it was the willing slavery or the very, very tame BDSM portion that led to the classification though. I know BDSM took a few hits to its reputation in the recent spat on what companies would publish in Ebooks on their sites. So it makes me wonder. Maybe I'll have to write one with some BDSM and no slavery as well as one with some willing slavery but no BDSM and see which one gets classified that way. It'd be a good test by fire.

Anyhow if other erotic authors are wondering why some of their stories may not be searchable in the 'all' category with a general search but are available in the 'books' tab, this may be what you encountered as well.

Jan 15th, 2013
A. Morrel