Amazon is screwing up royally

[ellen_datlow]

Amazon Follies

From amazon: 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.

Here's a good example of what has been stripped and not:
The Pictures Say it ALl

Here's more without the pix:

From Jezebel--
Books Stripped Of Amazon Sales Rankings:
Wetlands
Ellen DeGeneres: A Biography
Outing Yourself: How To Come Out As Lesbian Or Gay To Your Family, Friends, And Co-Workers
Gay Life And Culture: A World History
Homosexuality And Civilization
The Way Out: The Gay Man's Guide to Freedom No Matter if You're in Denial, Closeted, Half In, Half Out, Just Out or Been Around the Block
The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World
Coming Out Of Shame: Transforming Gay And Lesbian Lives
The Gay And Lesbian Self-Esteem Book
Heather Has Two Mommies
Dude, You're A Fag: Masculinity And Sexuality In High School
Sexing The Body: Gender Politics And The Construction Of Sexuality
Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life: A Collection Of One Night Stands
Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown
Full Frontal Feminism by Feministing's Jessica Valenti
Lady Chatterley's Lover
For Yourself: The Fulfillment Of Female Sexuality
Queer Theory: An Introduction
Out In Theory: The Emergence Of Gay And Lesbian Anthropology
Diary Of A Drag Queen
The Rise And Fall of Gay Culture
A Memoir Of No One In Particular
Apples And Oranges: My Journey To Sexual Identity
Bi Lives: Bisexual Women Tell Their Stories
Bisexual Women In The 21st Century
Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Identities Over The Lifespan: Psychological Perspectives
Social Services For Gay And Lesbian Couples
The Lesbian Parenting Book: A Guide To Creating Families And Raising Children
The Truth Is...My Life In Love And Music by Melissa Etheridge
Nasty: My Family And Other Glamorous Varmints by Simon Doonan
The Praeger Book Of Transsexuality: Changing Gender to Match Mindset (Sex, Love, and Psychology)
True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism—For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals
GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond The Sexual Binary
Girl Meets Girl: A Dating Survival Guide
The Art Of Meeting Women: A Guide For Gay Women
The Mayor Of Castro Street: The Life And Times Of Harvey Milk
Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life In America
Women, Gays, And The Constitution: The Grounds for Feminism and Gay Rights in Culture and Law
Identity And The Case For Gay Rights: Race, Gender, Religion as Analogies
Gay America: Struggle For Equality (YA)
Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer
Men Who Rape: The Psychology Of The Offender
Gay Day: The Golden Age of the Christopher Street Parade 1974-1983
Gay And Lesbian Washington, DC
Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter To America

Books NOT Stripped Of Amazon Sales Rankings
Fear Of Flying
Belligerence and Debauchery: The Tucker Max Stories
The Complete A**hole's Guide To Handling Chicks
Lesbian Couples: A Guide To Creating Healthy Relationships
How To Be A Happy Lesbian, A Coming Out Guide
Ron Jeremy: The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz
Traci Lords: Underneath It All
I'm With The Band: Confessions Of A Groupie
Emma And Meesha My Boy: A Two Mom Story
Boy Meets Boy (YA)
She's Not There: A Life In Two Genders
How To Be A Super Hot Woman
The Complete Idiot's Guide To Amazing Sex
Female Chauvinist Pigs
Getting Off: Pornography And the End Of Masculinity
A Parent's Guide To Preventing Homosexuality
Gay Children, Straight Parents: A Plan For Family Healing
Confessions of a Video Vixen
The Vixen Diaries
Candy Girl: A Year In The Life Of An Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody
A Stripper's Tail: Confessions Of A Vegas Stripper
Seduce Me! What Women Really Want
The Professional Bachelor Dating Guide: How To Exploit Her Inner Psycho
Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds
Super Beauties: Nude And Natural
Male Nude Photography: Lance And Beau
Hot Cougar Sex: Steamy Encounters With Younger Men
Exercising The Penis: How to Make Your Most Prized Organ Bigger, Harder & Healthier
Whore
The Anarchist Cookbook

I've just spot checked a few of my own anthologies: Little Deaths has a rank, Sirens (with Terri) doesn't...weird.

Petition here (thanks Robin):
Protest Petition

Update: 9:32pm ET

Amazon claims glitch

However, this:
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.

Does not explain why complaints were responded to with
From amazon: 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.

So are they lying?

April 13 --official amazon word

Amazon calls mistake 'embarrassing and ham-fisted'

Comments

[lagilman]

I'm With The Band: Confessions Of A Groupie

Dear dog. i read that book (don't judge me, I was working in the publicity department of the publisher at the time and I had to x'ox enough clippings that I finally said the hell with it and went to see what the fuss was about) and if that didn't trigger someone's 'adult content' filter...

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Alien Sex has a ranking. I really cannot figure out how they decided what to drop...

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

It doesn't make any sense, which is why I'm going with tech glitch - in many cases, the same book is either ranked or not ranked depending on the edition. Anything like a sex manual is no longer ranked, from the Dummies book to Kim Cattrall's book to relatively mechanical and dry books. But collections of Playboy centerfolds are not.

This is a massive foul-up, never mind that trying to exclude books based solely on sexual content is problematic from the get-go.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

But did you read the response from amazon? It sounds deliberate but totally inconsistent.

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

The automated canned message several people have gotten? Yeah. It does seem that they've been intentionally dropping "adult" books, which...how the hell do you do that, exactly, except with a "once you've made it into the canon you're no longer porn" standard?

But there's no way Amazon intended to dump everything tagged Gay & Lesbian off the sales rankings. I mean, not unless Dr. Evil took over the company during the weekend or something. They're going to be falling over themselves apologizing in a matter of hours, here - this is already starting to hit the news.

The delisting of books based on sexual content will remain problematic after Heather Has Two Mommies gets its sales rank bank.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I hope you're right. This is going to be a huge public relations disaster for them.

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

Oh, seriously: I said this on Shocklines, and people might think I was joking, but I was not. Amazon's going to be looking to throw some money into GLBT-oriented non-profit literary efforts like yesterday, I'm betting. Anybody with any serious proposals already fleshed out might have an opportunity coming up, here.

Yeah, this is going to blow way up on them - and it should, it's a colossal screw-up or series of screw-ups, at best.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Just dropped by Shocklines and saw the thread there.

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

For many years now there have been rumors/discussions in queer circles that Bezos and/or other Amazon exec's have given money to Social Conservative Republican causes that have limited queer rights. This will all feed such talk. I don't know if it's true.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

It's hit Daily Kos. Expect the noise to go up even more.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Here's the Kos link:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/12/719278/-Amazons-New-Moralityfor-your-protection

[robinpen.livejournal.com]

I've signed the petition.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

thanks for pointing it out--I added it to my post above.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I've signed as well.

[tjcrowley.livejournal.com]

The one I am most offended by is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Hello-Cruel-World-Alternatives-Suicide/dp/1583227202

"Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws" by Kate Bornstein. Nothing erotic about it, except guilt by association - the author wrote another one called "The Gender Workbook". This is so insensitive it should cost Amazon some revenue. Do they really advocate suicide for some people?

[glvalentine.livejournal.com]

The Complete A**hole's Guide To Handling Chicks

Oh, WHAT?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

The two lists are sooo inconsistent that it's got to be a huge glitch.

[bkwyrm.livejournal.com]

I think they mean glitch in the sense of "oops, someone NOTICED that we're being rampantly stupid!"

[pds-lit.livejournal.com]

Idiots!

I signed the petition

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[fireriven.livejournal.com]

What do you think about this potential explanation (http://tehdely.livejournal.com/88823.html)?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Certainly possible. I wouldn't discount it, as the whole thing has suspiciously blown up on a holiday weekend during which a business wouldn't be paying as much attention to problems as they would normally.

[14theditch.livejournal.com]

I've been following this on Twitter on and off today, from when it started to when Amazon backed off. I've been checking Twitter out, having just joined, and it seemed to me to be OK, but mostly just a sea of banality. I* think this incident really displays its power, though. A petition started only really a few hours ago already has close to 7000 signatures last I looked. Things happened super fast. It's not that Twitter not continue to be a sea of banality, but it has its uses for sure.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I'm not a Twitterer--in fact, I don't think I could if I wanted to on my primitive cel phone :-) But yes, it can be useful--but on the other side, bad, untrue things could spread really quickly that would be hard to staunch.

[14theditch.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Of course they're lying. They realized they stepped in it and are trying to save face.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Too late for that. The only thing that will help now is for them to abjectly apologize (fire someone), and as some have suggested they make some huge contributions to GLBT organizations. I'm curious to see what they actually DO do tomorrow morning.

[neojess.livejournal.com]

And this popped up elsewhere on my flist:
Defintion: amazon rank (http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/amazonrank/)

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

A Glitch that started in February and is only now being fixed?

Bullshit.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Amazon has been deranking books for moral reasons since at least August 08:
http://www.teleread.org/2008/08/28/amazon-hiding-sales-ranks
-of-naughty-books-e-book-standards-and-drm-angles/

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

The link broke funnily because it was too long, here it is again as a tinyurl:

http://tinyurl.com/ca4hqx

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that finally enough people noticed to make a stink (or the right person noticed)

[faustfatale.livejournal.com]

Add my novel Control Freak to the list of the de-ranked.

[chalkhorse.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this, it's one of the more detailed and link-filled posts I've seen on this.

Reminds me of how AOL (another corporate giant used by many people) tends to post only "news" stories that are either completely sensationalized crimes or celebrity escapades, or about pretty white people. No doubt because they think that's "what the people want."

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Well, I figured it was only right to follow up on the initial brouhaha. I'm sure some people aren't convinced that it was unintentional. I personally believe it was a royal screw-up.