Amazon Fail
Edited to Add:
on Monday April 13 this article was put out at seattlepi.com, regarding what was happening inside Amazon.
here is a response from Dear Author on April 13. and here is the Making Light post/thread on the subject, 'Amazon's very bad day', April 13. interesting comments in both the Dear Author and Making Light posts.
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there has been major drama over at Amazon.com this weekend.
here is an explanation from Dear Author:
"What’s going on?
For those who don’t know, Amazon has decided to derank and then remove from front page searches books labeled “erotic” and GLBT. For example, books that are about Lesbian parenting have been identified as “adult content” and deranked. Patti O’Shea’s book that is listed “erotic horror” despite having only one sex scene has been deranked and removed from front page search results. Amazon has deranked Annie Proulx, E.M. Forster, but not American Psycho. Mein Kampf and books about dog fighting are ranked and can be searched from the front page, but not books about gay love or books with erotic content.
"Why is this is a big deal?
It’s not because customers put any stock into the Amazon Ranking number. It’s that the Amazon Rank affects a books’ visibility on the bestseller list, on the “If you Like ___, you might like __ feature” and so forth. It is akin to the bookstore removing the books from the shelves and requiring you to go to the Customer Service desk and ask for the book or author specifically. Visibility is a huge factor in sales and anyone who doesn’t believe that is kidding themselves."
this first touched my reading list at around 10am in the morning, and the news has gotten more and more complex. one of the first people to notice the change at Amazon was Mark R. Probst (markprobst), who noticed when the sales ranks disappeared from two newly released high profile gay romance books. when he asked Amazon about it, he was told, "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."
not only are the sales rankings being stripped, but they have been removed from the search engine. the community meta_writer has been keeping track of which books have had their sales rank stripped. these include such respected works as Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain and E M Forster's Maurice. !!!
some people have suggested that these events are the accidental, the result of a glitch or a sorting algorithm gone awry. Publisher's Weekly weighs in, posted Sunday 4/12 at 5:49pm:
"A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy."
I don't know what I think. if you type "homosexuality" into Amazon's search field, the top results are:
1. "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" by Joseph Nicolosi;
3. "You Don't Have to Be Gay: Hope and Freedom for Males Struggling With Homosexuality or for Those Who Know of Someone Who Is" by Jeff Konrad.
5. "Can Homosexuality Be Healed?" by Francis MacNutt
this is not cool.
edited to add:
here is a petition to sign that protests the situation at Amazon.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books recommends much stronger measures.
on Monday April 13 this article was put out at seattlepi.com, regarding what was happening inside Amazon.
here is a response from Dear Author on April 13. and here is the Making Light post/thread on the subject, 'Amazon's very bad day', April 13. interesting comments in both the Dear Author and Making Light posts.
[/eta]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
there has been major drama over at Amazon.com this weekend.
here is an explanation from Dear Author:
"What’s going on?
For those who don’t know, Amazon has decided to derank and then remove from front page searches books labeled “erotic” and GLBT. For example, books that are about Lesbian parenting have been identified as “adult content” and deranked. Patti O’Shea’s book that is listed “erotic horror” despite having only one sex scene has been deranked and removed from front page search results. Amazon has deranked Annie Proulx, E.M. Forster, but not American Psycho. Mein Kampf and books about dog fighting are ranked and can be searched from the front page, but not books about gay love or books with erotic content.
"Why is this is a big deal?
It’s not because customers put any stock into the Amazon Ranking number. It’s that the Amazon Rank affects a books’ visibility on the bestseller list, on the “If you Like ___, you might like __ feature” and so forth. It is akin to the bookstore removing the books from the shelves and requiring you to go to the Customer Service desk and ask for the book or author specifically. Visibility is a huge factor in sales and anyone who doesn’t believe that is kidding themselves."
this first touched my reading list at around 10am in the morning, and the news has gotten more and more complex. one of the first people to notice the change at Amazon was Mark R. Probst (markprobst), who noticed when the sales ranks disappeared from two newly released high profile gay romance books. when he asked Amazon about it, he was told, "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."
not only are the sales rankings being stripped, but they have been removed from the search engine. the community meta_writer has been keeping track of which books have had their sales rank stripped. these include such respected works as Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain and E M Forster's Maurice. !!!
some people have suggested that these events are the accidental, the result of a glitch or a sorting algorithm gone awry. Publisher's Weekly weighs in, posted Sunday 4/12 at 5:49pm:
"A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy."
I don't know what I think. if you type "homosexuality" into Amazon's search field, the top results are:
1. "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" by Joseph Nicolosi;
3. "You Don't Have to Be Gay: Hope and Freedom for Males Struggling With Homosexuality or for Those Who Know of Someone Who Is" by Jeff Konrad.
5. "Can Homosexuality Be Healed?" by Francis MacNutt
this is not cool.
edited to add:
here is a petition to sign that protests the situation at Amazon.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books recommends much stronger measures.