Google Fails Because Google Doesn’t Know What “Romantica” Is.
This morning I decided I didn’t know enough about this whole Adword thing, so I decided would by one of Google’s Adwords, and the word I choose was romantica
For those of you who don’t already know, romantica is a sub-genre of romance that places a heavy emphasis on sex and arrousing the reader. My friend Lauren Dane calls herself a romantica author. This is what Ellora’s Cave has to say about it:
Romantica® is the name for the line of erotic romance novels published by Ellora’s Cave Publishing. Erotic romance is defined by us as: any work of literature that is both romantic and sexually explicit in nature. Within this genre, a man and a woman develop “in love” feelings for one another that culminate in a monogamous relationship.*
In a piece of Ellora’s Cave Romantica® literature, sexual language is typically expressed in frank adult terms, rather than couched in flowery phrases. In other words, rather than describing lust in a woman’s body as “a whirlwind of electricity that jolted through her love valley” as is generally found in mainstream romance novels, an author of Romantica™ might say, “intense desire coursed through her body, making her wet with arousal.” (E-rated and above titles typically use much more graphic language than that.)
Romantica® doesn’t begin from the premise that women’s sexual experiences are dirty and therefore in need of being perfumed up by flowery phrases. The premise of Romantica™ is that women’s sexual experiences are legitimate, positive, and beautiful.
(*I’m not quite sure how the man/woman/monogamy part works with EC’s Gay & Lesbian themed titles or their Menage a Trios or More themed titles.)
Romantica is popular with women, and does a huge trade in e-books. E-books are a handy way to buy and read your smut because e-book readers are secure and portable. You can keep in e-book reader in your purse, and just to make sure your kids or husband doesn’t get nosey, you can password protect it. And a good thing too. Romantica books get pretty saucy. Here’s Ellora’s Cave’s (the best known and largest publisher of romantica) trademarked SEX rating system:
S – ENSUOUS
E – ROTIC
X - TREME
Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica® reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-rotic), and X (X-treme).
S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.
E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. E-rated titles might contain material that some readers find objectionable—in other words, almost anything goes, sexually. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry in terms of both sexual language and descriptiveness in these works of literature.
X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Stories designated with the letter X tend to contain difficult or controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.
Romantica authors and publishers don’t consider what they do porn, but whatever you call it, some of it is pretty damn saucy. Inside the genre there are threesomes, foursomes, orgies, BDSM, ambiguous consentuality, and every manner of penetration you can imagine. These books are about sex, but the reason that (most of) the people who read them, write them, and publish them don’t consider romantica to be porn is because romantic places an emphasis on character, chemistry, and craft that just doesn’t come to mind when most people think of porn.
I’m none to fond of the p word either, for most of the same reason. But whatever you call our work, by Ellora’s rating system, I’d say that our films are an S; Our sex scenes leave nothing to the imagination, but they’re pretty vanilla as far as actual sex acts. I’d guess that some the of people who like getting turned on reading romantica might enjoy getting turned on watching one of our films. And that’s what makes the reason that Google won’t let me buy the key word “romantica” positively absurd. Here’s what google says:
Reason:
An Adult classification is preventing your ad from showing.
What does this mean?
AdWords Specialists have classified your ad as Adult, but the search query isn’t adult in nature. Google will only show adult ads for queries that meet certain criteria for adult content. For example, a Non-Family Safe or Adult ad is not eligible to appear for a Family Safe search term such as flowers. In order to see this ad, users will need to enter a search query that indicates interest in adult content.
What can I do?
If your AdWords ad is classified as Adult, modifying the content of your site or your ad text may make your ad eligible for consideration as a Non-Family Safe ad. However, both of these classifications were created to protect users who do not wish to see material intended for adult audiences. To ensure that we provide a positive user experience, we do not permit the advertisement of adult sites for unrelated, Family Safe keywords. Click here for more information about our ad approval policies. Alternatively, you can edit your keyword list to reflect the adult content of your ad.
I don’t know if Google “AdWords Specialists” are pizzaboxes or people, but either way, if Google thinks ‘romantica’ isn’t an “adult search querry”, then something’s wrong with Google. (In case you’re wondering, Ellora’s Cave is the #2 search result for ‘romantica’.)
It’s looking more and more like Violet is right. Whether or not the “Adword Specialists” are pizzaboxes or people, Google does not have the tools – or current knowledge – to evaluate sex on the web.
P.S. I sent Google a note using their form. (I hate formmail because I don’t get to keep a copy.) I told them they were wrong, that ‘romantica’ was not a family friendly search. I copied Ellora’s Cave’s rating system into it. We’ll see what happens.
P.P.S. Here’s another rating system from another first page return for the google search ‘romantica’:
STORY RATING
1- Don’t waste your money.
1 If you have it, it’s worth the read but goes back to the ubs.
2 Good story, but probably goes to the ubs.
3 I like everything this author writes, but they’ve done better.
4 This is a keeper.
4+ Rare find, must find everything this author has written.
5 THERE ARE NO WORDS FOR THIS BOOK!!!!!
SEX/LOVE SCENE RATING
Limp=> Bad, little or NO SEX AT ALL!
Erect==> Good sex toward the end.
Boner===> Good sex half-way through and thereafter.
STIFF====> Good sexual tension throughout the book, and when it happens, you feel you’ve been there already.
HUGH=====> GREAT SEX in the first 1/4 of book and throughout the book.
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:37 am
It’s pizza boxes.
AdWords has an agent that goes out and scans the content of the page that the ad links to. That’s part of how it determines if the ad is adult in nature. Take all of the adult words out of the page you’re linking to and your ad won’t be classified as adult.
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:40 am
I’ve got no problem with Google classifying Comstock Films as adult. What I want to know is why they thing ‘romantica’ is a “family friendly search” when the second return is Ellora’s Cave!
January 17th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I don’t think they mean monogamous in the sense of two people but in the sense of however many people are in the relationship are comitted to each other at the end of the story.
I write menages for them so it’s three as well as two and I know other authors who write more than three.
I’d say, under EC’s system your movies would be an E - that’s where my books are. It’s not about kink as much as more graphic terms and the place sex has in the overall story.
And romantica is a trademarked term owned by EC so I’d say no, it’s not a family friendly search term because it’s adult material. Good adult material, don’t get me wrong, but you have to be over 18 to buy the books.
And I don’t write porn. I have no problem with people who do, but in my opinion, porn exists for the sole purpose of titilation. My books are story first with sex in them, the object is the story and then then the sex. I wouldn’t be doing my job if the readers weren’t a bit tingly when they finished, but the presence of a menage or an orgy doesn’t in and of itself, equate to porn. And you’ll never find any questionable consent in my books, ever. It’s something that makes my skin crawl.
Anyway, I totally agree that my readers would love your movies and I tell them so all the time.