Amazon's New "Morality" - for your protection
by Linda in Ohio
Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 11:51:18 AM PDT

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

The good people at Amazon have made a small change to the way you can search for books. It's Easter Sunday, so you're probably not supposed to notice. The target of their new approach is anything that they consider to have adult content, and especially anything that might involve GLBT issues. The writing community is already staring to blaze about this, but it needs much wider attention.

Basically, any title that Amazon consider "adult" will no longer be included in the "Best Sellers" lists – or ranked at all. These titles will not show up on all searches, even when the exact title of the book is entered. Who decides what books are "adult"? That's not at all clear. But whoever's making the choices is casting the net far and wide, and hauling in an awful lot of GLBT books.

Ugh! Since our local lesbian bookstore closed, I get most of my Lesbian fiction from amazon.com. I hate to hear they are doing this. I assume the straight romantic fiction eludes this moralistic net?

it might have been reverted, i did one of the example searches from the blog post and got exactly what I would have gotten before.

No, if you look at any of the books mentioned, their description no longer includes their ranking.

I've written a letter to Amazon about this [I found out a few hours ago via livejournal].  So did my mom, I think.  This needs to gain traction and start an outcry.. Amazon needs to feel the backlash and change the policy.

I was wondering what the heck was going on. I just bought a cool book of gay erotica at my local LGBT bookstore and wanted to see if Amazon could recommend similar books that might strike my fancy. I typed in the short title with the editor's last name, but the book didn't come up. Then I typed in the exact title, word for word, and the book still didn't come up. I assumed that Amazon simply didn't have the book, but I thought that rather odd. I didn't try the ISBN.

When I did a Google search, one of the hits was...you guessed it, the Amazon page for the book. So I clicked on it and found the book that way.

Now that I understand what's going on, I'm so disgusted that I can barely type. GRRRRRRRRRRR.

So now I go back to Amazon and try the title search, title and author search, and ISBN search. Suddenly I'm getting hits for the book. What gives? Is their search mechanism designed to avoid hits initially and only give you hits if you follow a certain persistent path?

You know, this is like when libraries list gay novels under the Adult section.

This has also affected transsexual autobiographies.  A really really famous one was pulled from rankings.. I don't remember the name, I think it's by Boylan?

Kids who really need to read these books and learn about their history and learn that they're normal will not be helped by thinking they're searching for things considered 'adult' and deviant.

Oh, the fastest way to get some high school kid to actually read a book is to tell them they can't.  My teachers used that tactic on me and my class once or twice, and I had good luck with it from a parent.

As for the rest, support you local bookstores before Amazon is the only place you can get books that are not on the best seller list.

sales ranking does seem to be missing, but search works fine.  I tried chatterley for Lady Chatterley's lover and it was top of the list (Chatterley was one of the example titles in a blog that supposedly wouldn't show up).

more here

Amazon: LGBT books too "adult" to be ranked.
by: Avery
Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 13:16:06 PM EDT

http://pamshouseblend.com/diary/10393/amazon-lgbt-books-too-adult-to-be-ranked

Thanks to the sharp eye of author Mark Probst, it appears that Amazon is now removing sales rankings from a vast swath of LGBT books for being too "adult."

Official Amazon.com 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

Which means that highly "adult" materials like Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness and the The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students no longer have sales rankings, while blatantly 'adult' material such as Laurel K Hamilton's Merry Gentry series is still ranked.

and more

http://jezebel.com/5209088/why-is-amazon-removing-the-sales-rankings-from-gay-lesbian-books

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Post Merge: April 13, 2009, 01:35:25 PM

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and still more

Amazon 'Glitch' Removes Sales Rank From Gay Books

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 13, 2009
Filed at 6:54 a.m. ET

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/13/arts/AP-Books-Amazon.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- A ''glitch'' on Amazon.com has caused the sales rank to be removed from gay- and/or lesbian-themed books by James Baldwin, Gore Vidal and others.

''There was a glitch in our systems and it's being fixed,'' Amazon's director of corporate communications, Patty Smith, said in an e-mail Sunday.

As of Sunday night, books without rankings included Baldwin's ''Giovanni's Room,'' Vidal's ''The City and the Pillar'' and Jeanette Winterson's ''Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.'' The removals prompted furious remarks on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere online.

and

      Why It Makes Sense That a Hacker's Behind Amazon's Big Gay Outrage
      By Owen Thomas, 1:42 PM on Mon Apr 13 2009

http://gawker.com/5210142/why-it-makes-sense-that-a-hackers-behind-amazons-big-gay-outrage

      Twitter had a big tizzy yesterday over Amazon.com's supposed censorship of gay and lesbian titles, did you hear? Just one problem: A well-known hacker has come forward and claimed the whole thing was his prank.

      The hacker, known as Weev, with whom we've had dealings before the "amazonfail" episode, is saying that the whole escapade was the result of his exploitation of a vulnerability in Amazon's product-rating tools.

      What to make of people who don't want to believe this was a prank? They're left with the notion of Amazon.com pursuing homophobic censorship, which must be pleasing to people who see evil behind every "Inc." Pick your conspiracy theory: Someone's playing someone.

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Post Merge: April 13, 2009, 04:16:50 PM

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and even more

Amazon.com: A Glitch...or the Ax?
Filed by: Patricia Nell Warren
April 13, 2009 4:00 PM

http://www.bilerico.com/2009/04/amazons_new_policy_glitch_or_ax.php

Over the weekend, did LGBT books get the ax on Amazon.com? Does the online bookselling giant actually have a new policy to target certain books as "adult books" -- removing them from the main queue of Amazon rankings and making them harder to find? An Amazon Advantage rep told one complaining publisher that this is indeed now their policy. Or is the listing mess just a glitch that they're trying to fix? This is what other people at Amazon told the media, according to Publishers Weekly.

So...which is it?

When I first got the word about dire happenings in the Amazon listings, I hurried to search under my author name, and was puzzled by what I found.

and

Hold Your Horses: Don't Boycott Amazon Yet
Filed by: Scott Kaiser
April 13, 2009 1:30 PM

http://www.bilerico.com/2009/04/hold_your_horses_dont_boycott_amazon_yet.php

Ok, the Twitterverse and LGBT blogosphere are in an absolute snit over a recent change at Amazon.com classifying most LGBT fiction as "adult content" thereby excluding the material from sales rankings, etc.

Worst yet, when author Mark Probst wrote Amazon about the policy change, he supposedly received the following response from Ashlyn D in Amazon.com Advantage Member Services: "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."

This is a pretty major transgression against the LGBT community. I have an author friend who just released a work of gay fiction earlier this month, and this new policy could seriously jeopardize the sales and success of his book. The LGBT community should immediately band together and boycott Amazon. Take action! Spread the word!

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Post Merge: April 13, 2009, 06:06:20 PM

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and


Amazon Backpedals; Blames "Glitch"
by: Louise
Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 14:00:00 PM EDT

http://pamshouseblend.com/diary/10412/amazon-backpedals-blames-glitch

Yeah right.


    NEW YORK - A "glitch" on Amazon.com has caused the sales rank to be removed from gay- and/or lesbian-themed books by James Baldwin, Gore Vidal and others.

    "There was a glitch in our systems and it's being fixed,'' Amazon's director of corporate communications, Patty Smith, said in an e-mail Sunday.

Anyone else buying this? Or anything ELSE from Amazon?

Quote from: TamTam on April 12, 2009, 03:59:03 PM
You know, this is like when libraries list gay novels under the Adult section.

This has also affected transsexual autobiographies.  A really really famous one was pulled from rankings.. I don't remember the name, I think it's by Boylan?

Kids who really need to read these books and learn about their history and learn that they're normal will not be helped by thinking they're searching for things considered 'adult' and deviant.

Tam, I'm thinking you are referring to "She's Not There" by Jennifer Finney Boylan? 

Is there any more info on whether Amazon has joined the ranks of employers like Exxon, Dominoes, and Walmart? A recruiter is trying to get me to apply for a position at Amazon that seems like a very good match for me. But I can't seem to find much on their corporate climate other than the HRC rating and this incident. Apparently, their policy includes protections for homosexual persons, but not transgendered persons. Any other stories or experiences out there?

I took a quick look at their web site, and was not able to find any kind of statement of hiring diversity. I would take that lack as an indicator.

You could call their HR department or email them.

HRC reports Amazon's specific policies, and I have little doubt that they report them accurately.  Amazon gets an 80 score for failure to have protection for transgendered persons.  But I know some places that have a 100 score where transitioners have reported horrible experiences.  I am really interested in whether anyone has any experience transitioning there or knows someone who has, or knows of incidents of hostile work environment against women or gays or other "minorities."  I use quotes because women aren't technically a minority, but are still treated by male superiors like dogs to be whipped at their pleasure, especially at my present employer.  I know my superiors don't treat male employees the way they treat us ladies.  The evidence is in the fact that they are still alive.

I would suggest applying for the position, and if they give you an interview, specifically ask the question. Then tell us the answer.