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What makes a book 'challenged' or to be put on the banned list?

How does that affect its publishing status? And why do people do this to literature that is technically a universal form of communication and free speech?

Public Comments

1. Because people get offended at the smallest things.
2. Books that promote independent Thought.
3. Sex and language are usually two reasons.
4. A book is "challenged" when a group of people--or, sometimes, just one person--asks that the book be taken off library or bookstore shelves. This happens most often in school libraries, and it's almost always a parent or group of parents who object to something in a book they have found out is in the library or that was assigned for their child to read. Sometimes these challenges are organized by church groups. In the past, books like Huckleberry Finn or James Joyce's Ulysses, for example, were banned for sale in certain cities. "Banned in Boston" became a phrase, used to describe something sexy, usually. The Catholic Church used to put out lists of books and movies that their followers were not supposed to look at. Often, this has the opposite effect. Sometimes, authors (or artists) find that their works sells better if it is controversial. Check out the American Library Association's site, ala.org, for lists of challenged books and info about the issue.
5. Define publishing status. If a book is banned in a school district it is not going to affect it at all, on the contrary, the controversy is bound to make the book sell more. The book has to be an outright insult to a large sector of the population for any publisher to even consider stop it's publication. In most cases in modern times, the effect is little to none. Again, publishers are businesses. Poor sales is what will affect the publishing status of the vast majority of books out there, controversial or not.
6. The fact that a particular community does not believe that the book conforms with local standards. They may feel that the book should not be on their school's curriculum or in their libraries. And that is their right. However those who wish to read the book have the option of buying it or using another library. The book is still available. If anything, controversy helps sell a book. Pax-C
7. it depend on what kind of media it is.
8. writing against a relegion language
9. Usually parents, teachers and religious leaders are the ones to get books banned. They do it because, for example, they think their kids will try to conjure magic if they read Harry Potter. I think that they are unreasonable most of the time, but it's their kids so they can do whatever they want. I don't think that it really affects the sale of a book. The places where the books are banned are probably mostly full of people who wouldn't buy it even if it wasn't banned. Besides amazon.com is available to everybody.
10. First, you should keep in mind that there is no "banned books list" in the United States - books can only be challenged and removed from the shelves of a local school or library system. There are many reasons that a concerned parent might challenge a book, but it generally comes down to the idea that the content is somehow inappropriate (because of racist language, depictions of sexuality, being strongly pro- or anti-religion, etc) for public consumption. We are lucky to live in a country where books are indeed protected by the First Amendment. Even if a book is removed from our local library, we can still buy it at a store or find it in another location. But, even better than pulling a book from the shelves would be having a frank discussion about it with children at a developmentally inappropriate level. A parent might ask, "What about this book reflects the values of our family? What doesn't reflect our values?" and open up a conversation about beliefs, morality, and the fact that other people may believe different things.