Erika Moen, the artist and co-writer of the sex education and sex toy review webcomic, Oh Joy, Sex Toy (along with co-writer, editor and colorist Matt Nolan), posted on Twitter that they were removed from Amazon's affiliate program and that Amazon is also withholding payments on money that Moen and Nolan had previously raised from the program.
Affiliate marketing is when someone (or, as in here, Moen and Nolan's webcomic, Oh Joy, Sex Toy) advertises another company and are paid from how many referrals they make to the other company. One of the most popular affiliate marketing programs in the United States is Amazon's. Many websites link to Amazon sales and popular sites can do quite well by getting a percentage of the sales Amazon makes by someone going to the e-commerce company from the initial website.
In the case of Oh Joy, Sex Toy, that generally means linking to sales of the sex products that Moen and Nolan review in the comic. Not only that, but there have been four print collections of Oh Joy, Sex Toy, an Oh Joy, Sex Toy coloring book, two sex education graphic novels called Drawn to Sex and a new sex education guide for teenagers called Let's Talk About It, so they send readers to purchase those products, as well.
According to Moen, Amazon informed them that they were being kicked out of the affiliate program because Oh Joy, Sex Toy (which, again, is specifically about sex) features explicit images. Moen and Nolan had been part of Amazon's affiliate program since they launched Oh Joy, Sex Toy eight years ago, but for whatever reason, Amazon decided that now was the time to sever the relationship.
Moen is fairly sanguine about being kicked out to the program, however, she is more upset about the fact that, apparently, Amazon "informed us they do not have to pay us any of the money we earned before this."
As noted before, Moen and Nolan have a new book coming out, so they have been taking a lot of preorders on it and now, those orders won't lead to money for Moen and Nolan. Moen added, "So all the pre-orders we did for LET'S TALK ABOUT IT (and all of THEIR sex toys that we sold for them) that were placed through our Amazon affiliate link... nothing. The income we generated from those sales, they do not have to pay us. I can't be mad at them for their hypocrisy ("Sell our sex toys and sex books, but don't PRODUCE sexual content yourself") because... they're Amazon. We all know they're an amoral megacorp. But the "We won't pay what you already earned" bit? Come the fuck ON."
Moen then linked to their Patreon and also requested that readers purchase their books from other book affiliate programs that they have not been removed from, like Powell's and Bookshop.org.
Source: Erica Moen/Twitter