On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: “Transgressions” by Erastes and “False Colors” by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a glitch of some sort? The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book “The Filly.” There was buzz, What’s going on? Does Amazon have some sort of campaign to suppress the visibility of gay books? Is it just a major glitch in the system? Many of us decided to write to Amazon questioning why our rankings had disappeared. Most received evasive replies from customer service reps not versed in what was happening. As I am a publisher and have an Amazon Advantage account through which I supply Amazon with my books, I had a special way to contact them. 24 hours later I had a 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
Yes, it is true. Amazon admits they are indeed stripping the sales ranking indicators for what they deem to be “adult” material. Of course they are being hypocritical because there is a multitude of “adult” literature out there that is still being ranked – Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins, come on! They are using categories THEY set up (gay and lesbian) to now target these books as somehow offensive.
Now in fairness I should point out that Amazon has also stopped ranking many books in the "erotica" categories as well which includes straight erotica. But that's a whole other battle that I'll leave to the erotica writers to take on.
Now I could probably convince the automatons at Amazon that The Filly is YA and therefore not “adult” in the least, and I could probably even convince them to reinstate my ranking. But if they are excluding books just on the basis of being “gay” then by all means exclude mine too because I don’t want them just to reinstate the “nice” gay books, they need to reinstate all the gay books and if they are really going to try and exclude so-called “adult” material, then how come this has an Amazon ranking?
Here is a screencap of the case log from Amazon. Keep clicking on the image to make it bigger
************For everyone who has commented on my blog - Thank you very much. and everyone who has asked if they can use my name and link back to me. YES please do. Spread the word. Amazon will be beside itself in the face of all this fury!
*******UPDATE**************
Publisher's Weekly now has a story here, that an Amazon spokesperson claims this is all a glitch and they have no such new policy. My caselog is still active in my Advantage account with the response from customer service rep Ashlyn D. Also I'd like to point you to this blog of an author who received this same response from Amazon back in February. Amazon has some 'splainin' to do!
***********UPDATE #2******************
As of 8 AM this morning (April 13th) The Filly has had its ranking reinstated by Amazon. I also noticed Alex Beecroft's False Colors was reinstated as well. Many others are not, so they haven't fixed the "so-called" glitch as of yet.
*******FINAL UPDATE******************
Amazon has released a statement of apology stating that it was an "embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error" that pertained to 57,310 listings. They also say that It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles. So it's over. Amazon admits they goofed, and I, for one, shall give them the benefit of the doubt and say I do not believe that there was any malicious intent. Case closed.
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
markprobst- Mark R. Probst
- Cheyenne Publishing
Page Summary
- vashtan : (no subject) [+3]
- the_sea_to : (no subject) [+3]
- storm_grant : (no subject) [+5]
- vashtan : (no subject) [+0]
- gehayi : (no subject) [+15]
- lexin : (no subject) [+1]
- mountie123 : (no subject) [+2]
- gileonnen : (no subject) [+2]
- storm_grant : (no subject) [+3]
- mroctober : (no subject) [+0]
- venivincere : (no subject) [+5]
- bifemmefatale : (no subject) [+5]
- katedouglas : (no subject) [+0]
- arionhunter : (no subject) [+0]
- valarltd : (no subject) [+9]
- tularia : (no subject) [+0]
- laughingrat : (no subject) [+3]
- dreamhunter : (no subject) [+2]
- coffeewimp : It seems to me... [+2]
- davenatts : They're not censoring anything - you can still buy the books! [+104]
- oceaxe : (no subject) [+4]
- copperbadge : (no subject) [+22]
- wolfsilveroak : (no subject) [+20]
- zellieh : (no subject) [+2]
- blackbird_song : (no subject) [+0]
Comments
Tweeted and forum-posted.
Edited at 2009-04-12 12:01 pm (UTC)
Thanks
Chris.
If you check the gay bestseller list, it's filled with the same books, just the Kindle editions. This isn't about protecting the public (if so, then give us our own lists and exclude us from mainstream lists--better the gay ghetto than being erased altogether!), it's about pushing their own product--it exposes more customers to the Kindle.
It's *always* about the money.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/bo
Thanks for sharing the info. Is it okay to link back here?
Kensington Plumbers
The same happens for amazon.com, the US parent Company.
As a reader I would like to know how this effects my searching choices. As it stands now I can't see the difference. I'd like to know exactly so I can word my letter correctly. Thank-you.
I thought I'd get out of the erotica section and look in history instead and low and behold Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History (Paperback) by Robert Adrich (Author) has had it's ranking stripped as has The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay & Lesbian Experience (Paperback) by Louis-Georges Tin (Editor), Marek Redburn (Translator).
I just wonder if Amazon will become even more aggressive in it's strippng of ranks or if it will let the policy go.
Edited at 2009-04-12 02:13 pm (UTC)
I wonder if it will impact sales.
This is how your review will appear:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Young Adult book - Shame on Amazon!, April 12, 2009
By <> (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This is a beautiful coming-of-age, learning-oneself story -- what a shame Amazon has seen fit to remove its ranking because it's classified as gay/lesbian fiction. Shame on Amazon! I'll direct my friends elsewhere to buy this book.
Your Tags: amazon is anti-gay
http://www.amazon.com/Lick-Frost-Meredi
I will be spreading this far and wide. What bullshit.
http://community.livejournal.com/meta_w
The list even includes The Well of Loneliness, where the only "sex scene" consists in its entirety of the words "And that night they were not divided".
Another good reason for me to link all the titles on my website to either my publisher's on-site sales or to BN.com.
Thank you so much for explaining this, as we were all wondering what had happened.
Kate Douglas
Wolf Tales
Good going, Amazon!
But what can we do?
Email in protest?
Boycott?
What?
WTF? WTF?!
words fail me. do you know whether only amazon.com is doing this or if this has happened to the sales rankings from other amazon branches too? that would be interesting.
damn. :/
There are a few innuendos in the book itself, but it's presented as nasty, malicious gossip instead of as fact. That it happens to be true by authorial statement (something she didn't bother to make explicitly clear in *any* of the books) doesn't mean it's obvious from reading the books.
I was linked here by a friend and have a fairly large, very literate readership on LJ that I can aim at the problem, but I'm not as informed as you are. I'm reluctant to link them here only because 2500 people descending on an LJ can be a little overwhelming, but if you'd like I certainly can. Good publicity anyway? :)
Do you think a letter campaign would be appropriate? A link to Amazon's complaint page and a form letter along the lines of "I've noticed you're dropping sales ranks on gay and lesbian fiction because you deem them "adult", and yet XYZ still has a ranking. I support equality in the arts and therefore do not intend to give Amazon my business"? Not hard to arrange, I can have it posted in a matter of hours.
Anyhow, let me know -- this is horrible and I want to help.
Now, they are so large that their decisions absolutely can and do cause a chilling effect on any kind of literature they choose to hide in this manner, and I find it execrable and infuriating that they'd choose to do so. But it's not technically censorship.
Do you mind if I link to this in a post on my journal? I'd like to spread the word.
I, too, would like to help. I'm going to post about this, as my readership is of moderate size, articulate and liable to be outraged by Amazon's tactics. I hope you don't mind if that post links here because you have the specific experience to relate and the explicit reply from Amazon.
I also would be happy to participate in and help promote a letter campaign. As it is, I'm very much inclined to write to them anyway, saying pretty much exactly what
Catherine
Edit: I see the link to meta_writer, and will use that in my post. :)
Edited at 2009-04-12 05:44 pm (UTC)