Censorship Guidlines

Frankiestylee

Does anybody know at what point certain books are censored?

It recently struck me that I've never seen much seperation in book shops other than a children's section.

I recently sent my novel to a publishing company and got a precious rejection letter. The letter didn't go into any detail, but it made me wonder.
My novel contained some quite graphic scenes of both a violent and sexual nature (not the two combined.) I'm wondering should I tone down the descriptive elements and allow imaginations to do the work, or should I stick to the highly descriptive piece I set out to write?

Would a graphically violent novel turn off a publisher the way an over 18's movies might turn off a movie distributor?

EileenG

There isn't really a censorship as such for books, but publishers might consider that too much, or inappropiate sex or violence may make a book hard to place. Mind you, if that was all that was wrong with your book, chances are they would have said they were interested but needed less sex or violence.

Even children's books often have a lot of violence and even some sex, it's all about the way it's handled. A recent teen vampire book I read had a girl starting at vampire boarding school and almost the first thing she saw was the school bitch giving someone a blow job in the corridor.

Frankiestylee

Ah I'm sure this element wasn't all that was wrong with the book, but I'm re-drafting it from every angle.

Thanks for the reply, it kinda goes along the lines of what I was thinking. There are definite elements I'm going to quieten down a bit, but hopefully I can retain the overall feel of the book.