The current controversy over the offensive erotica ebook has produced such a shocking, knee-jerk response: massive wave of removal of ALL of self-published ebooks from WH Smith, Kobo is removing most if not all of the self-pub titles in their UK ebookstore, Barnes & Noble have started removing content and Amazon is removing whole swathes of self-published erotica.
I get that major players in the self-pub industry have a reputation to protect but the saddest part of this controversy is that self-publishing industry will start censoring and sacrificing freedom of expression. It is interesting to note that Lolita or Flowers in the Attic published traditionally were not subjected to similar censorship.
Will this make the self-publishing companies review their manuscripts submitted like traditional publishing companies? I hope so as I think that is what differentiates the DIY self-publishing companies from full-service self-publishing companies; the latter one cares about what kind of authors they represent.