In recent days there’s been several reports of authors who use Google Drive to share stories with beta readers receiving notice that their files have been removed for violations of terms of service. The commonality appears to be that the stories in question contained erotic content, such as erotic romance or erotica, and they were shared with a large number of people. It isn’t the content, we’re told, that Google objects to; it is the fact that the same link was shared with numerous people and was seen as spam. But the truth is, it probably also is the content.
If you’ve been following me, or this blog, for any length of time you’ve probably heard me talking about building your business on your own platform. I’ve been telling people that if you’re an erotic romance author (for example) and you build your website on Wix, if they deem your work to be in violation of their prohibition on adult content, they could take down your website. Boom – your link to your readers, the online home to your business will be gone. And many people have told me that it would never happen.
If you look at the terms of service for most website services (Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, even including WordPress.COM – not self hosted wordpress, which is what we offer), file sharing sites, and even payment processors, many of them don’t allow adult content. They also don’t specify what they deem as adult content. As the users of Tumblr found out when the ban hammer arrives, it does so swiftly and without much explanation.
Sadly for the authors who experience this, the support they receive from these companies is virtually nonexistent. There are often no explanations for why the material was removed; there are often no ways to restore the material. Instead, it’s a matter of changing and moving on.
The other problem is that most solutions are either paid ones or open source ones. When it comes to web hosting, well I’d be remiss in mentioning our webhosting and newsletter services. (Did you know Mailchimp also bans adult content?) But if you’re looking for collaboration on your documents, something like HedgeDoc (an open-source markdown manager) or a workspace platform may better serve you. As with everything, these solutions often take time, knowledge, money, or all three.
So what is an author to do? First, always have a plan. Even if the systems you have in place are working well right know, think about what you would do if you suddenly lost access to your website or your google drive. Are those files backed up somewhere else? (And let’s be honest, if you can’t back up your website and keep a copy of it to move somewhere else, then that’s not a platform on which to build your business.)
Got questions? Reach out! I’m your friendly author technologist. I love talking tech, and I love finding solutions to people’s technical problems. Let’s see what we can do together.
