Dear Amazon: Kindly f*ck off.
From Mousekinn, I find these links:
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/04/12/amazon-censors-its-rankings-search-results-to-protect-us-against-glbt-books/#more-11455
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/amazon-rank/
I scan the articles, and the short story is that Amazon is .... Actually, here's an email which is quoted in the first article I've linked:
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
This is brought up because you can't search for GLBT books from the front page, apparently. This is, as far as I have been educated to understand, censorship.
sleary further comments with a couple empirical searches:
...I can’t search for Heather Has Two Mommies, Brokeback Mountain, Jacqueline Carey’s second Kushiel trilogy, Sarah Waters, E. Lynn Harris, Patricia Highsmith, or books on challenging homophobia or Harvey Milk. ... And if I search for “homosexuality” in books, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality comes right up, but suicide prevention manuals for gay teens have been removed from the search results.
Sleary goes on to provide other links, such as:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23amazonfail
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/04/amazon-deranks-gayfriendly-books-the-twitterverse-notices.html
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/amazonrank/
I honestly am gobsmacked by this. Seriously? I can't search for Brokeback Mountain? You know, I've never read the book. I hear it's pretty good. I can't search for Jacqueline Carey's second trilogy? She was a guest at a sci-fi con I was at a few years ago. I'd like to support her, perhaps. Two of the novels I most like to recommend to people are Maureen F. McHugh's China Mountain Zhang and Nicola Griffeth's Slow River. I might not be able to much longer, because both books deal with homosexual main characters.
Sadly, Amazon is cockblocking me.
Yes. I intended that pun.
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/04/12/amazon-censors-its-rankings-search-results-to-protect-us-against-glbt-books/#more-11455
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/amazon-rank/
I scan the articles, and the short story is that Amazon is .... Actually, here's an email which is quoted in the first article I've linked:
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
This is brought up because you can't search for GLBT books from the front page, apparently. This is, as far as I have been educated to understand, censorship.
sleary further comments with a couple empirical searches:
...I can’t search for Heather Has Two Mommies, Brokeback Mountain, Jacqueline Carey’s second Kushiel trilogy, Sarah Waters, E. Lynn Harris, Patricia Highsmith, or books on challenging homophobia or Harvey Milk. ... And if I search for “homosexuality” in books, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality comes right up, but suicide prevention manuals for gay teens have been removed from the search results.
Sleary goes on to provide other links, such as:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23amazonfail
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/04/amazon-deranks-gayfriendly-books-the-twitterverse-notices.html
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/amazonrank/
I honestly am gobsmacked by this. Seriously? I can't search for Brokeback Mountain? You know, I've never read the book. I hear it's pretty good. I can't search for Jacqueline Carey's second trilogy? She was a guest at a sci-fi con I was at a few years ago. I'd like to support her, perhaps. Two of the novels I most like to recommend to people are Maureen F. McHugh's China Mountain Zhang and Nicola Griffeth's Slow River. I might not be able to much longer, because both books deal with homosexual main characters.
Sadly, Amazon is cockblocking me.
Yes. I intended that pun.