I rarely get involved in 'political' debates, but this one really pisses me off! Amazon recently decided to strip all 'adult' material, including erotica and erotic romance, of sales rankings and search capabilities. They've also included ANY GLBT material-even YA fiction with gay characters that contain no sex whatsoever, and non-fiction books to help GLBT youths deal with issues, such as coming out.
There is no basis for this even in their own published policies! This will certainly hurt our sales as authors, will hurt the publishers who deal with Amazon, and their own customers-and ultimately, their own sales. I am encouraging everyone to buy their books at Barnes & Noble or Borders online, or other sources such as Fictionwise, until Amazon can be made to see the error of their ways.
Meanwhile, please help us by signing this petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy
You can read more here:
http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html?view=62653#t62653
Thanks for your support!
Eden
**Edited to add a bit of brilliance from Smart Bitches:
Amazon Rank
**UPDATE: Sunday evening: Amazon is apparently now claiming this was all a 'glitch'-utter crap since they responded to several people's inquiries in which they stated there was a new policy governing adult material. You can see more on the Publisher's Weekly site (LOTS of people looking at this so it may take a while to get in:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6651080.html?desc=topstory
UPDATE: 4-13-09: I got a response to my email to Amazon today...interesting:
Thank you for contacting Amazon.com.
This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.
It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles - in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon's main product search.
Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.
Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.
Sincerely,
Customer Service Department
Amazon.comLabels: Amazon ranking, Amazon ranks, censorship, erotic romance, erotica, Google-bombing, Smart Bitches, urban dictionary |
posted by Eden Bradley-Eve Berlin at 
