Amazon's selling "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure?"

nighttimer · Nov 10, 2010

Somebody at Amazon is either asleep at the switch, stuck on stupid or just doesn't care what their customers think.

Amazon is offering as a Kindle download The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure by Phillip K. Greaves for the cost of $4.79.

Greaves says in the Product Description, "This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian rules for these adults to follow. I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter sentences should they ever be caught."

The first thing I asked myself was, "Is this somebody's idea of a sick joke?"

I checked on Snopes.com to see if this was just an internet legend or something. Nothing.

Next I logged on to Amazon.com and entered a Live Chat with a customer service representative. I copied the discussion and here's a part of it:

Me:Objectionable Content1:07:15 PM
Kimneihoi :Hello, my name is Kim. I'll be happy to help you today. 1:07:23 PM
Kimneihoi :How can I help?1:07:39 PM
Me:Good afternoon, Kim. 1:07:42 PM
Me:I wanted to know if a topic I saw on Facebook about a book being offered by Amazon is correct.1:08:10 PM
Kimneihoi :Hi, good afternoon.1:08:12 PM
Me:The book is called, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure."1:08:52 PM
Kimneihoi :Yes, the offer which you saw on Facebook about a book being offered by Amazon is correct.1:10:09 PM
Me:Are you kidding me? Amazon is offering a book for pedophiles?1:10:31 PM
Kimneihoi :we'll as per my knowledge, it is.1:12:08 PM
Me:Okay. Thank you.1:12:19 PM

I am absolutely repulsed that a supposedly respectable business is offering a "book" (and I use that word advisedly) that most hardcore porn websites would not touch with a ten-foot pole.

I'm not sure what to say about this, but I've attempted to contact CNN, Fox and the NY Times as well as my local newspaper and TV stations to gauge their interest.

Is this just a free speech issue or are there some ideas and beliefs so reprehensible and repugnant they have no place in society?

Uncarved · Nov 10, 2010

whats worse is that people are BUYING this book. It has a sales rank.

AMCrenshaw · Nov 10, 2010

I don't understand what this book is really about. I know what it says it's about. But I haven't read it.

Have you read the book? Has any of the 50+ one star reviewers read the book?

Anyone at all?

seun · Nov 10, 2010

Sounds to me like a bad taste joke. Give it time and Amazon will withdraw this and offer an apology.

veinglory · Nov 10, 2010

AMCrenshaw said:
I don't understand what this book is really about. I know what it says it's about. But I haven't read it.

Have you read the book? Has any of the 50+ one star reviewers read the book?

Anyone at all?

So we should potentially put money in the pocket of a child sex abuse advocate and probably get added to an FBI watch list just to 'check it out'?

shawkins · Nov 10, 2010

I'm fairly sure that if the book is about what it says it's about, it's illegal. Isn't all child pornograpy illegal? Written, CGI, painted, whatever? I vaguely remember a debate at one point about "if no child was hurt in the creation of this image why is it a crime?"

Vince524 · Nov 10, 2010

nighttimer said:
I'm not sure what to say about this, but I've attempted to contact CNN, Fox and the NY Times as well as my local newspaper and TV stations to gauge their interest.

Is this just a free speech issue or are there some ideas and beliefs so reprehensible and repugnant they have no place in society?

Ditto on the outrage.

My take on the free speech issue is that they have the right to say and write what they want, that doesn't mean someone had to publish it, or that Amazon has to sell it.

I mean, this is a forum for writers, many of whom, like myself have a great MS that they want to see published and sold on Amazon.

Freedom of speech doesn't cover Amazon's ASS on this one. I was going to order a book from them today too. I won't now til this is off.

Thansk for this, btw.

AMCrenshaw · Nov 10, 2010

veinglory said:
So we should potentially put money in the pocket of a child sex abuse advocate and probably get added to an FBI watch list just to 'check it out'?

I don't know what this book is. I'm still having difficulty registering that it's a real, published book

brainstorm77 · Nov 10, 2010

No this isn't the first time this stuff has been on Amazon. I remember the pedophile group whose name I shall not mention having books on there promoting their sick agenda.

veinglory · Nov 10, 2010

Given how easy it is to upload a self-published ebook to Kindle, I bet they get stuff like this and worse every day of the week. Regardless of the contents of the book, the cover and blurb should have been rejected.

LOG · Nov 10, 2010

Bad spelling, it won't sell.

defyalllogic · Nov 10, 2010

this website says Amazon has responded:
http://www.blogher.com/amazonfail-a...er-topics/entertainment-books/books&crumb=172

The alleged response to the complaint was pasted into the forum and contains the following:
Let me assure you that Amazon.com does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts; we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.
Amazon.com believes it is censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable. Therefore, we'll continue to make controversial works available in the United States and everywhere else, except where they're prohibited by law. We also allow readers, authors, and publishers to express their views freely about these titles and other products we offer on our website. However, Amazon.com doesn't endorse opinions expressed by individual authors, musical artists, or filmmakers.

robeiae · Nov 10, 2010

The author is Philip R. Greaves, not K. Greaves.

Anyway, there's something wrong here. The guy has a couple of kindle books listed: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_ath...gital-text&field-author=Phillip R Greaves 2nd

One disproves God, another traces the history of sex, and another is a political tract. And the spelling is just awful in the descriptions of all.

Uncarved · Nov 10, 2010

The blogher link has screen shots of the "authors" view on sex with children that he posted as comments.

scarletpeaches · Nov 10, 2010

I saw a link to this on Twitter earlier and thought, "This has got to be a joke, right?"

Right?

Perks · Nov 10, 2010

So, Amazon is okay selling how-to crime manuals. Noted.

Zoombie · Nov 10, 2010

I'm going to protest book the best way I know how: By not buying it, not promoting it, and not telling any of my friends about it.

scarletpeaches · Nov 10, 2010

If this is for real, Zoombie (and it's so far into WTF territory I do still wonder), the best thing is to publicise it. In my opinion.

Not to sell the book of course, but to shame Amazon.

Vivid · Nov 10, 2010

robeiae said:
The author is Philip R. Greaves, not K. Greaves.

Anyway, there's something wrong here. The guy has a couple of kindle books listed: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_ath...gital-text&field-author=Phillip R Greaves 2nd

One disproves God, another traces the history of sex, and another is a political tract. And the spelling is just awful in the descriptions of all.

I saw that. I'm calling troll on this guy. If you didn't care about HOW you made your living as a writer, you could probably get away with it by doing this. How many newspeople / cops / angry bloggers bought a copy of this creepy "book" just to see what it was like? It's 12 000th in the paid kindle store, which means it's doing pretty well.

AMCrenshaw · Nov 10, 2010

(*sees spam below*) Did the author try to post on AW?

nighttimer · Nov 10, 2010

Okay, okay, so I got the asshole's initial wrong. He's still a creep! :whip:

I'm just stunned Amazon.com has such poor quality control that a slimy piece of garbage could be offered on their site.

Someone needs to be fired. Maybe a few someones. This is not just outrageous, it's sick.

Torrance · Nov 10, 2010

Gee, you mean this doesn't fall under the banner of terrorism? You know it terrifies me to know that these FREAKS are walking the streets and breathing my air. This is a book trying to justify... no actually it's worse than that... mitigate a heinous act of violence against a child. No child can consent, therefore it's sexual assault. Amazon has got to do the right thing here and whoever it was that issued that policy note for the company should be terminated immediately. Their application of that wholly selfrighteous bit of corporate policy making doesn't compute in this case.

dgrintalis · Nov 10, 2010

I posted this on another forum and thought I'd mention it here, too. It pains me to think of someone sitting down and writing something like this, just as it pains me to know there are people who would buy it. It's absolutely repulsive.

But, it might be a setup, a sort of 'honeypot' for the authorities to use to see who is purchasing the book. In that case, if its existence allows the authorities to catch just one pedophile, then the book's presence on the site, however distasteful and horrifying, may be of worth. If it isn't an intentional honeypot, you can still be sure someone, somewhere, is watching.

robeiae · Nov 10, 2010

This appears to be from the same author:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?r=1&EAN=9780533077762

That's a real book from 1988, though it was published by Vantage Press, one of the great old vanity press outfits.

So, I'm thinking this is a real offering, and that maybe these books are rewrites--or extracts--of vanity books the author published previously.

scarletpeaches · Nov 10, 2010

I see from one of the comments that a reader (of Amazon, not this book, I hasten to add) had contacted Amazon and said they were 'working on it'. Even offering refunds!

Come on. Who's gonna call up and say, "I bought a book on how to rape children; apparently I need to return it. Can I have my money back?"

Amazon's selling "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure?"

No Gods No Masters

I aim to misbehave

...

Horror Man

volitare nequeo

Ahhh. Sweet.

Are you gonna finish that bacon?

...

practical experience, FTW

volitare nequeo

Lagrangian

i'm a girl. (i have tendonitis)

Touch and go

I aim to misbehave

delicate #!&@*#! flower

Dragon of the Multiverse

New kid, be gentle!

...

No Gods No Masters

'Tis true, she is a monstergirl

Touch and go