Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-03-31
Source: The Conversation – France (in French)– By Stéphanie Parmentier, Lecturer at Aix-Marseille University (AMU), qualified doctor in French literature and in Information and Communication Sciences, and librarian teacher. Researcher affiliated with IMSIC and CIELAM, Aix-Marseille University (AMU)
In February 2026, a strong emotion gripped part of the literary world because of a dark romance book, a narrative genre recounting violent or transgressive love relationships. The novelHeart bodies, written by the Frenchwoman Jessie Auryann and self-published in 2023 and 2024 on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform, was suddenly and belatedly accused of romanticizing pedocriminal scenes. The book thus found itself plunged into a heated media controversy. However, this does not constitute an exception on self-publishing platforms, for which this type of scandal produces a form of inadvertent marketing.
Since its creation, Amazon’s self-publishing platform has regularly been at the center of literary controversies due to content considered shocking, transgressive, and immoral by some minds – as was the case with the publication ofBody to hearts, taxed with“serious matter of an immoral nature”.
Scandals are a constant in the history of the arts, and literature in particular. Works now considered classics once provoked indignation, but these controversies generally took place over a long period, involving both the artist and their publisher. The resulting scandal took on a character that was as much literary as it was editorial. Such was the case with the famous titleStory of O, by Anne Desclos (published under the pseudonym Pauline Réage), published in 1954 by the notorious Jean-Jacques Pauvert,the publisher accounting for about twenty literary lawsuits.
With the rise of digital self-publishing and its immediacy, temporality accelerates. Literary controversies generally arise online, circulate quickly on social networks, and can spread at high speed and large scale. Does self-publishing on KDP contribute to accelerating the cycles of literary scandals? In other words, do digital platforms like Amazon reconfigure the traditional mechanisms of literary scandals?
The recurring abuses of self-publishing on Amazon
Since its creation in 2007 in the United States and in 2011 in France, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform has attracted a growing number of authors, whether amateur or established. By allowing anyone to publish a book without going through a publishing house, it has profoundly transformed access to publishing. Over the years, a huge flow of books has surged onto this publishing space: a simple search on the commercial siteAmazon.frreveals that more than “100,000 works” are listed in the Dark Romance category, across all editorial categories. However, this editorial opennessalso arouses numerous criticisms.
It was only a few years after the platform’s appearance that several works had to be withdrawn from sale because they were so controversial. Thus, in 2010, the digital book entitledThe Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: The Code of Conduct of the Child Loveris removed from the Kindle store about fifteen days after its release, following a wave of outrage among readers and complaints from numerous child protection organizations. Three years later, an investigative report reveals the presence on the Kindle store of several self-published works describing scenes of rape, incest, or bestiality.In response to criticism, Amazon removes several of these titles again.
However, the controversies do not concern only pornographic content. Over the years, books written by self-proclaimed health specialists have also appeared on the platform. In 2019, several self-published titles promoted alleged cures capable of curing serious diseases by ingesting toxic substancesare identified and quickly withdrawn from the market.
One year later, in the midst of a pandemic, books spreadingconspiracy theoriesaround the coronavirus are also removed by Amazon, sometimes discreetly. More recently, in 2023, the platform faced a new phenomenon: the massive arrival of books generated by artificial intelligences. Overwhelmed by this wave of automated publications, Amazon is selling works containing incorrect information, notablyguides on mushrooms likely to mislead readers and cause poisoning. Finally, recently, several racist and anti-Semitic books, although banned in France,have been removed from sale on Amazon sites, but also from Fnac and Cultura.
#KDP, the economy of scandal
These few examples of literary detonations reveal that self-publishing on KDP is part of a dynamic of recurring scandals, likely to erupt at any moment. Beyond literary scandals, the self-publishing ecosystem on Amazon is also marked by other types of book-related controversies, such as cases of plagiarism regularly reported on KDP, as was the case for theAmerican novelist Nora Robertsor even the multiple attempts by Amazon aimed atTo circumvent the law on the fixed book price.
Unlike the literary scandals associated with traditional publishing, which often result from a publisher’s stance, convinced of the power of a manuscript and seeking to defend their favorite author, as in the case ofLolita, by Vladimir Nabokov, a work rejected by several publishers before being accepted in 1955 by Maurice Girodias through his Olympia Press imprint, the controversies surrounding Amazon’s KDP seem to belong to a totally different logic. In the digital self-publishing ecosystem, the scandal does not stem from an editorial act driven by literary motivation but very often results from a series of factors favoring virality. From then on, a question arises: aren’t literary scandals drivers of visibility for a global platform whose model relies on attention, traffic, andbuzzAh ?
Lack of filtering and power of algorithms
In theory, self-published books on KDP are governed by alicense agreementand publishing rules. At any time, Amazon can indeed remove content identified retrospectively as inappropriate or contrary to the rules; yet, in practice, the platform is regularly at the center of controversies. One initial explanation lies in the very nature of self-publishing. Whereas traditional publishing relies on several levels of filtering (reading committee, legal or marketing department), KDP primarily favors speed and the volume of publications. Let us recall the appealing slogan promoted by Amazon on KDP:“Publish your books independently in paper and digital formats, and reach millions of readers worldwide thanks to Amazon.”. This unlimited openness allows marginal, provocative, or transgressive works to be displayed on screens without having undergone the traditional publishing reviews.
However, the mechanics of the scandal do not stop there. On Amazon, the visibility of books largely depends on algorithms that reward engagement: clicks, downloads, comments, reviews, or online discussions. Controversial works precisely serve to maintain and foster these expected and provoked reactions; they attract attention, fuel debates, and circulate on social networks. In this digital environment dominated by the attention economy, controversy thus becomes a powerful driver of visibility. Contagion becomes a value.
Involuntary Marketing
In this scandal mechanism, virality indeed plays a central role. Many literary scandals born on KDP actually break out outside the platform, notably on TikTok, Reddit, or X (formerly Twitter). A passage deemed shocking, a controversial plot, or a provocative cover can quickly go viral. Within a few hours, an otherwise unknown book can instantly be thrust into the heart of a public debate, turning a personal publication into a media phenomenon.
In this context, controversy sometimes acts as a form of involuntary marketing. Every discussion, criticism, or outrage helps to make the work known and to attract new readers, curious to discover what is causing so many reactions. It should be noted that the people behind the controversy are generally not the faithful readers of the genre, but rather external readers who, by chance or serendipity, discover the work and help to trigger the controversy.
Thus, self-publishing on KDP creates a paradoxical editorial space. It is a place of unprecedented creative freedom for authors, but also a fertile ground for controversies serving Amazon. Between algorithms, virality, and the attention economy, literary scandals on this online sales site are not editorial accidents accepted by authors and publishers, but structural elements of the self-published digital book ecosystem. The recent controversies surrounding self-published dark romance novels are therefore not an exceptional occurrence in Amazon’s dynamics but rather seem inherent to its operation.
In this turbulent context, it is worth recalling that just a few days after the dark romance affair, Amazon once again found itself at the heart of a controversy during the announcement of its partnership with the2026 Book Festival in Paris. This visibility of the digital publisher provoked the fury of the booksellers who quickly demanded its removal and got it.
Stéphanie Parmentier does not work for, advise, own shares in, receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no affiliation other than her research organization.
–ref. Self-publishing on Amazon: when the mechanics of scandal spiral out of control –https://theconversation.com/lauto-edition-sur-amazon-quand-la-mecanique-du-scandale-semballe-278553