Over the weekend, "hundreds of gay and lesbian books" written by authors from James Baldwin to E. Lynn Harris "simultaneously lost their sales rankings" as Amazon.com arbitrarily re-classified the titles as "adult". Author Mark R. Probst made the discovery while searching for his gay youth-themed novel The Filly. After contacting Amazon, he received this 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.
Much of the outrage spread across the internets via Twitter and by Sunday "it took just an hour for the hashtag #amazonfail to become the top trending topic on the site", Publishers Weekly reports.
LiveJournal community MetaWriter is tracking de-ranked LGBT titles. Classics such as James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain and E.M. Forster's Maurice were among those losing their sales rankings, as well as numerous contemporary titles by black gay authors such as E. Lynn Harris, Frederick Smith and Nathan James. "I am incensed, because ALL of my books have lost their Amazon rankings," James tells Rod 2.0. "The Flesh To Flesh anthology has actually been made unavailable. The page says "we don't know when, or if, this book will be available again."
Flesh to Flesh anthology edited by Lee Hayes, as well as some other titles, are now available. Contrary to the explanation given to Mark R. Probst, an Amazon spokesperson tells Publishers Weekly "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." Glitch or not, making books harder to find on the basis of their content is never a good idea. And at the same time many LGBT titles were randomly de-ranked and re-classified as "adult", Amazon had "vibrators and anal plugs available in their search system with sales ranks attached."
How you can contact Amazon AFTER THE JUMP.
Amazon's main help e-mail is connect-help@amazon.com.
Also try http://clicheideas.com/amazon.htm.
Feel free to contact their CEO:
Jeffrey Bezos
1200 12th Avenue South,
Seattle, Washington 98144-2734
United States Phone: 206-266-1000
Fax: 206-622-2405
Amazon messes with my ability to read James Baldwin and they mess with me. If they don't have a better excuse than "glitch" I an going to boycott that site. I usually go to them for my LGBT content but they can forget about it. Frederick Smith is a talented writer and his book is no more adult than the hetero content that was allowed to stay ranked.
Ohhh Amazon in the age of the 24/7 media and the blogsphere you done awoke a sleeping giant!
Posted by: Mr. FAMU | 13 April 2009 at 01:36
It also appears to be a rather spotty decision,,
Rankings have been removed for some editions of classic books, but not others. For example, paperback "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and MM paperback "Giovanni's Room" have had their rankings removed, but the hardcover editions still have theirs.
I hope you're right and Amazon realizes how wrong this is. Until then, they've lost my business.
Posted by: Virgil | 13 April 2009 at 01:44
They ONLY did it to gay themed books as was pointed out repeatedly at OP's link. How could this not be interpreted as homophobic????
Posted by: D. Askew | 13 April 2009 at 01:47
So you can search for Hitler's Mein Kampf and straight erotica but not E Lynn Harris or Brokeback Mounatin.
Does. Not. Compute.
Posted by: CA | 13 April 2009 at 01:49
Are we sure this is homophobia?
It doesn't seem Amazon would want to alienate part of audience and lose sales during a recession.
Posted by: Jamey | 13 April 2009 at 01:54
“The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy.”
He did mention, however, that the new childish policy was working well, thank you!
Posted by: Barry S | 13 April 2009 at 01:56
Yep. It’s just a glitch, nothing to see here. Definitely not homophobia, even though a spokesperson says "we exclude 'adult' material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists."
Nothing to see, keep moving folks.
Posted by: Jackson | 13 April 2009 at 02:14
Too “adult?” Ridiculous.
Amazon just lost my business.
Posted by: Shane Moseley | 13 April 2009 at 02:18
Oh now suddenly its a "Glitch." LOL at them thinking they could mess with the gay dollar and get away with it, RETRACTING their actions and calling it a glitch when the pink mafia gets on that ass. Amazon does not want to go broke and be blacklasted, trying to cover their own asses.
Posted by: Kevyn | 13 April 2009 at 06:35
Glitch means simply that they got busted. They took an action and now there are repercussions.
Posted by: Ravenback | 13 April 2009 at 07:36
Any email or contact links for the general user to express outrage? I was just over at the site and there is no obvious "Contact us" link for customer feedback.
I'm not LGBT, but _any_ notion of pre-filtering or removal of information is BAD, BAD, BAD. Build filters for customers to use, by all means. But if you've listed it, don't arbitrarily pull it.
Posted by: Shirley Hicks | 13 April 2009 at 08:07
thank u rod!
i am channeling mr. rogers now:
"can you say boycott?...i thought you could"!!!!!!!
i spend tons of cash at amazon
i have been a loyal customer for over a decade
i will now take my cash to
alibris.com/fatbrain.com
peace
ab
shame!!!
Posted by: aliia banks | 13 April 2009 at 08:36
Let amazon know how you feel!
connect-help@amazon.com
Send them an email!
Posted by: Mr. FAMU | 13 April 2009 at 08:37
WTF? This is absolutely ridiculous! I had no idea this was going on. A glitch in the system? Their glitchs sounds really homophobic!
Posted by: Lee Hayes, author | 13 April 2009 at 09:05
Why is Amazon delisting LGBT books for being too ‘adult’?
I’ll take a stab; because they are a bunch of gutless pussies still catering to the frenzied, anal retentive, inbred mob culture of Christian Conservatives?
Posted by: Jonas | 13 April 2009 at 09:45
“glitch”, eh? Well, for my own part, and I may be a littel crazy, but I have no intention of running my personal finance information through a computer system that is all “glitchy”.
Posted by: Anton | 13 April 2009 at 09:47
So this was all caused by a glitch huh? Cool. Who’d ‘a’ thunk?
Posted by: Dante | 13 April 2009 at 09:59
Rod, I believe you have a policy against posting links in comments, but hoping you'll highlight blackgaybooksonline.com as a cool place to find black GLBT literature of all kinds...We need to let Amazon know this kind of bull will not be tolerated. I'll take my hard-earned dollars elsewhere.
Rafael, that is an excellent suggestion and the link is included above.
BTW, anyone here can post links. I don't have a policy against posting links in comments. I do have a policy against people using comments to excessively promote products or services. That is not the purpose of comments (or this blog) and it is not fair to my advertisers. But your suggestion is great, thanks. -RM
Posted by: Rafael | 13 April 2009 at 10:20
Yes, a glitch is possible (though many are still understandably skeptical), but Amazon.com could certainly help mend fences by offering all LGBT titles at a discount.
Until this fully plays out, though, my Amazon.com credit card will stay in my wallet and I'll continue to have my own "glitch" about buying anything from the site.
Posted by: Andy Niable | 13 April 2009 at 10:48
I hear you Andy. I'm having a glitch with my credit cards too. I might have to trek to Borders.
Posted by: Thomas M | 13 April 2009 at 11:00
This is what happens when you start delisting things. It’s soft book burning in the first place, so you can hardly be surprised when the politicism spreads beyond sexual taboos.
It definitely looks like these Amazon listings are actively political in nature. Who’d have guessed?
Posted by: Mead | 13 April 2009 at 11:00
I will no longer be shopping at Amazon!
Posted by: FQ | 13 April 2009 at 11:27
I’m seriously disappointed. I’ve been a increasing my business with Amazon lately. I sent an email asking for an explanation. I will hold off on any future business until I see how they address this issue.
Posted by: Byron in PGC | 13 April 2009 at 11:29
I am dismayed by this seeing as how I buy most of my books online and they had been so helpful and courteous to me in the past. But this news has me rethinking what kind of company they are. I am no longer going to be spending my hard earned money with them.
Posted by: Christian Lebeija | 13 April 2009 at 11:39
Why isn’t the Bible on that list? It has incest, rape, murder, genocide, and other adult themes. I’m sure they’re fine with that and all the tripe put out by Focus on the Family ...
Posted by: Rahsaan | 13 April 2009 at 12:05