Self-censorship

Self-censorship is when authors or writers censor their own work before it is published out of fear that their work will be bowdlerized or condemned once it is published. When looking at the publishing industry, one prime example of self-censorship can be seen with the Comic Code Authority (CCA), which "was an industry-sponsored attempt to curb criticism levied at comic books". While this organization, "promised to police its own ranks", its influence remained pervasive in the comic book industry "for more than half a century, with the last publishers only dropping out of the system in 2011" (Robinson 188). Since the CCA would apply seals to the covers of approved comic books, distributors could see which books had been "approved" and which hadn't, allowing them to refuse any comics that didn't have that specific seal.