So…I’ve been busy as all hell lately, which means I haven’t really been writing much of anything. However, I do have some interesting stuff I want to write about, so once summer comes around, expect at the very least a post on reading the manga F. (Family) Compo, a family comedy about having trans parents.
But in urgent news, I’m stutter-posting my post on Pam’s House Blend about the Amazon Deranking fiasco.
(Logo from here.)
EDIT: Amazon has announced this is a “system glitch” that will be fixed.
Thanks to the sharp eye of author Mark Probst, it appears that Amazon is now removing sales rankings from a vast swath of LGBT books for being too “adult.”
Official Amazon.com Response:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.
Best regards,
Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage
Which means that highly “adult” materials like Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness and the The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students no longer have sales rankings, while blatantly ‘adult’ material such as Laurel K Hamilton’s Merry Gentry series is still ranked.
And with most of the LGBT-focused books de-ranked, the Gay and Lesbian Bestseller list is now almost entirely listing only Kindle editions (ranked on their own Kindle-exclusive list).
meta_writer is collecting related links and a list of book affected. For the twitter-inclined the official twittertag is #amazonfail. There is an online petition protesting Amazon’s decision and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books suggests Google-bombing the term “amazon rank” (see their post for more information).
Oh, the horrors that might result if one were to “introduce into the minds of perfectly innocent people the most revolting thoughts.”
Also, it should be noted that not only LGBT books are suffering: Feminist and general sexuality books have been targeted as well.
Contact Information: Amazon’s main help e-mail is connect-help @ amazon . com (remove the spaces). For other methods, try http://clicheideas.com/amazon.htm.
Or write to their CEO:
Jeffrey Bezos
1200 12th Avenue South,
Seattle, Washington 98144-2734
United States Phone: 206-266-1000
Fax: 206-622-2405
