[activism] AmazonFail

[seeksadventure]

ETA 4/12 10:25 pm: A theory about why this happened that compares it to LJ Strikethrough.

ETA 4/12 9:45 pm: Hanne Blank and Lawrence Schimel talk about how some of their books being deranked have changed their search results.

ETA 4/12 9:25 pm: Amazon apparently tells Publishers Weekly that it's just a glitch. Which doesn't really fit into what else is being said.

I'm glad I saw this before I finished the order I was putting together, because Amazon doesn't get my money when they use stupid policies like this.

AmazonFail

Amazon is removing the sales rank and ability to search for books they deem to have adult content, but pretty much only where adult content = GBLTQ and sometimes straight and queer erotica. Obviously they have some interesting standards for adult content because I was still able to find the rankings for, say, Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books; I'm sure they have no adult content at all, nope.

Links

+ Smart Bitches, Trashy Books provides a new definition for Amazon Rank
+ A list of some of the books which have had their rank removed
+ markprobst, publisher, asked Amazon about it and received this response

Quote: 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.

+ strange_selkie provides a link to the petition and Amazon's customer service phone number. (I've reposted them both below.)
+ Social networking sites, including Twitter, spread this far and wide.
+ tammy212 is angry.
+ Denver Internet Examiner "Online Censorship"

Activism
+ Amazon Daily, a blog (No post about the topic yet but people leaving comments about it.)
+ Petition
+ Customer Service complaints 800-201-7575

Comments

[mattie.livejournal.com]

LKH's book have tons of adult content but they aren't erotic at all - is that why? lol

That's bullshit. They get a lot of my yaoi spending dollar because I buy used whenever possible and it's easier than having to do a special order at our local bookstores, but if they're going to act stupid I'll just save myself shipping and shop locally.

[carlamlee.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha. Yeah, good point. I'm not even sure why I thought to check her books, I don't read them anymore and have hated them for years.

I tend to buy a lot of my books from Amazon, and even have a Prime account (that I won't be renewing) because my legal books, in particular, are a lot cheaper on Amazon. (Frequently $50 to $80 cheaper.) So it will really, really hurt my budget to stop shopping there, but I'll do it.

[aphrodite-mine.livejournal.com]

I copied this pretty much word for word and sent it as an email to a bunch of non-lj people.

This is AWFUL.

[carlamlee.livejournal.com]

Thanks for spreading the news. It is awful.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

I'm so, so, so angry about Amazon. *flails* Thank you for this link round up, especially the petition post.

[texaslawchick.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this?

http://community.livejournal.com/brutal_honesty/3168992.html?style=mine

[slw2004.livejournal.com]

As I saw this post and clicked on a link I headed over to guardian.co.uk and what was on their front page: 'Gay writing' falls foul of Amazon sales ranking system (http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/apr/13/amazon-gay-writers)