If you ever want to make a lot of money fast, write something controversial, wait for somebody who is riding their high horse of morals, ethics, and political correctness to complain about it, then charge people to read it. Once you do this, people will always come back to read more.
It does not matter who or where you are, but somebody will do their best to influence you with their own vision of right and wrong. What is a non issue in one place will be a jailable offense in another.
The list of books banned by governments is actually very long and includes the USA. The titles include “The Da Vinci Code”, “Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure”, “Mein Kampf”, “Not Without My Daughter” to name just a few.
The key is just to be controversial enough to ruffle some feathers, but not so much as to piss off the masses. When you can do this people will flock to buy the book to see what all the fuss is about and what they are not suppose to see. Topics about sex, politics and religion always manage to get someone fired up. Combinations of any of those and you will probably be on the best sellers list inside a month.
The reason for this is simply, adults are adults and do not like to be treated like children. There was plenty of no, don’t touch that, put that down when we were young. So to be told that when we are an adult just peeks our curiosity as to why we suddenly have new self appointed adults of adults to tell us no.
That ranks right up there with people who would stand out in front of an adult venue trying to embarrass the people going into the venue. It is those people outside who have personal sexual issues and not the people in the venue. So if you come across people like this feel free to tell them there is no need to go public with their personal sexual issues, there are plenty of therapists who can help in a much more private setting. That should generate some controversy for them to digest.
But as adults we are generally smart enough to know good from bad and right from wrong. And even that we may disagree with what is being said or feel it is offensive, we still have the ability to make our own decisions.
On the other hand, governments regularly dish out loads of propaganda to influence our thinking process. The hard part is identifying the more subtle propaganda. So people who write to challenge the governments position are targeted to some extent depending on the government doing the judging.
So as you can see there are plenty of ways to make money using controversy as a tool. Just be ready with your answer that you are just doing it to make money in hard economic times, and the sting will not be so bad. Tens of thousands of people will easily part with $5.00 to see what all the fuss is about.
I actually read both “The Communist Manifesto” by Marx/Engels and “Mein Kampf” during my US Military service in 1967 at Fort Lewis Washington. I displayed them openly – there were various comments on it – but never any objections. Both books were available at the local Library.