I don't remember the sex scene being on-page at all; yes, they had sex during a beach holiday but AFAIK it was very discreet. The main thing was the love story between the two. But maybe I'm wrong. Read it a very long time ago but I think I would have noticed -- plus, it was published so long ago, and I don't think authors were at all explicit in those days -- that trend happened in the last twenty years or so! Or do you mean there couldn't even be off-page sex?
What it originally said, on its list of things it would not publish, was "Sex scenes featuring a Catholic priest/nun, or stories that are derogatory to any religion."
I took that to mean no sex scenes with them of any kind, even discreet ones.
Thanks! Yes, I'd looked at their 'key words for stories' link and 'taboo' and 'forbidden' are on there as though they are separate things from all the other kinks. So I was scratching my head about what they constitute for Banned Fiction. Maybe they don't even know themselves? I noticed the editing/typo mistakes on the site, also, but it looks like it's still under construction so it may be they'll iron those out. They also talk like they've already published and distributed books, and want rights they've 'historically' been able to exploit. Odd, since they haven't published any books yet as far as I can tell--and misleading if that's the case. I've sent an e-mail and will report back if/when I hear from them.
They've added a "We Want Writers" section that describes the keywords as "The keywords on our
Submit It! page are listed to help writers and classify what their story is about. Thus, making it easy for the shopper to find what they want."
The problem is, there are
no keywords on their Submit It! page. There are some on their Submissions Guidelines page, and their Keywords for Story Ideas page, but which one they're describing there we're left with no clue. It does explain (indirectly) why taboo and forbidden are on the keyword list though--it's for their eventual keyword search system. I guess someone could be looking to sort Bannedfiction's offerings for a book with *any* kind of taboo sex, (i.e pseudo-incest OR public sex OR age play) as opposed to the people looking for their specific kind only (public sex).
My overall impression is that they don't know what they're doing. "Under construction" is one thing, but they've advertised themselves as open and up for submissions, so the amount of frequent changes and shifting rules and definitions is troubling. They should have had a clear idea of what they were willing to accept before they began taking submissions, and they should make it clear to potential submitters.
I see literally nothing from them that would encourage me to have faith in them as a publisher, and plenty to make me question them. I look forward to your report on the email matter.
(In case BannedFiction is reading) If I were them, I'd take a week off messing with the site, huddle up, and decide exactly what they will and won't take, what their policies are, and have a clear and consistent vision to move forward with before they change the site to try and reflect that vision.
Live-editing the site without a clear vision just makes things more confusing. Adding redundant pages that say almost the same thing as other pages, and refer to side-bars that
don't exist yet is not making anything better. Referring to information as on one page when it's on an entirely different page is not making anything better. That's why it's a wise idea to sit on and edit and review site changes before you make an actual change to a website.
