Bad Romance! No Sale for You!  

Posted by Seressia

From Publisher's Weekly (or, as I call it, the W-T-F department):

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has blasted a new Indiana law that requires bookstores to register with the government if they sell what is considered "sexually explicit materials." The new law, H.B. 1042, was signed by Governor Mitch Daniels on March 13, and calls for any bookseller that sells sexually explicit materials to register with the Secretary of State and provide a statement detailing the types of books to be sold. The Secretary of State must then identify those stores to local government officials and zoning boards. “Sexually explicit material” is defined as any product that is “harmful to minors” under existing law. There is a $250 registration fee. Failure to register is a misdemeanor.

Given the current heat level of everything but inspirational romance, even the local drugstore will have to register on the sex offender bookseller list. (After all, it isn't fair for the Borders to have to register and not Bob's Drugstore.) Or perhaps the store buyer will offer a questionnaire to publisher reps and distributors asking if a title has teh sex in it and having them sign a declaration stating that it doesn't so that it could be sold.

Hhm, maybe this will finally get all those clinches off the covers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at Wednesday, March 26, 2008 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

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