Amazon Says Glitch to Blame for "New" Adult Policy
By Rachel Deahl & Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly,04/12/2009
A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove "adult" titles from its sales rankings. On Sunday evening, however, 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 policy regarding "adult" titles. As of Monday morning, a number of titles affected by the glitch were still without sales rankings. No one at Amazon was available this morning to discuss when the problem might be fixed or what caused the glitch.
For most of the weekend on Twitter, in conversations with the hash tag "#amazonfail," users were discussing the fact that the e-tailer was removing the sales rankings for books that it deemed featured "adult" content. Many readers, and writers, decried the fact that Amazon appears to be removing the sales ranking for titles that feature gay and lesbian characters and/or themes.
The director of the Erotic Authors Association, who goes by the pen name Erastes, told PW that many of her members "noticed their titles had been stripped of their sales rankings" on Amazon. One, Mark Probst, contacted a customer service representative at Amazon and wrote about the exchange on his blog. Probst wrote that the Amazon rep responded to his inquiry by saying that "'adult' material" is being excluded from appearing in "some searches and best seller lists" as a "consideration of our entire customer base."
Whatever the cause, titles like James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room and Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain are among the those that have lost their sales ranking. Bloggers aren't buying the glitch explanation and some are calling an Amazon boycott, but the fact that such a wide range of titles have lost their rankings suggest that whatever Amazon may have been trying to do went haywire.
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| Submitted by: | Kay Newton (Kat_New@msn.com) 5/27/2009 5:31:31 PM PT |
| Location: | Knoxville, TN |
| Occupation: | Writer/Teacher |
I had an "adult novel" in the quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Competition. Early on, it received around 30 5-star reviews and shot to a sales ranking of #8. Then my readers started informing me that they couldn't download it, or that they sent in reviews that never got posted. Then the ranking disappeared entirely. Needless to say, the novel didn't make the semifinal cut. Hmmm.
| Submitted by: | lex (lexiconby@hotmail.com) 4/15/2009 6:10:35 PM PT |
| Location: | Calif. |
| Occupation: | developer |
I welcome the outrage. This is especially troubling in the midst of brick and mortar bookstore closures and the growing power and influence of Amazon as the dominant book e-tailer.
| Submitted by: | mac (truckin@aol.com) 4/14/2009 3:37:22 AM PT |
what exactly are the FACTS that you at PW have to "SUGGEST" that this is
a mere glitch in the amazon system. What sloppy reporting. Back up
your reasoning for why you think this 'suggests' anything other than
what the sales rep told the caller, which more clearly 'suggests'
censorship by Amazon rather than your weak supposition. Whose pocket
are you in, you're supposed to be independent reporters, arent you
| Submitted by: | Jackson Pearce 4/13/2009 12:04:13 PM PT |
| Location: | Atlanta, GA |
| Occupation: | Author |
I can't say I buy it...
| Submitted by: | Elissa Altman (ElissaAltman@gmail.com) 4/13/2009 11:55:59 AM PT |
| Location: | New York |
| Occupation: | Editor |
"Erotic" or not: in 1995, I was the co-editor of a book called Aimee &
Jaguar--an historical memoir of the affair between a Jewish woman and
an Aryan woman, in Berlin, in 1943, and all that relationship entailed
historically. The book went on to become a movie some years later.
That book? No ranking.
| Submitted by: | N.C. Weber 4/13/2009 10:44:25 AM PT |
| Location: | Washington, DC |
| Occupation: | Help Desk Technician |
To paraphrase the computer game Portal: "The glitch is a lie!"
| Submitted by: | Mari Bushman (editor@jigsawpress.com) 4/13/2009 10:12:18 AM PT |
| Location: | Sun River, MT |
| Occupation: | executive editor and CEO |
Why is Amazon fooling around with sales rank when their accounting needs to be addressed? I have a Vendor Central account and currently Amazon in two months behind in reporting Kindle sales, meaning also that they're two months behind in payments for sales.
As I have contended for quite some time, it would seem they are having serious cash flow problems. Perhaps this so-called glitch is a smoke screen to keep attention from focusing on the fact that no one's getting paid for their Kindle sales in a timely manner. The government employs smoke screens like this all the time to keep us fighting amongst ourselves. Why not Amazon?
Having caught them underpaying my Kindle sales using the numbers from a spreadsheet they sent me, I don't trust Amazon to report anything accurately. Think of the number of books on Kindle now and then think of the amount of money they would generate monthly if they were to fail to report the sale of even one Kindle edition per book listed on their site.
This "glitch" is no glitch at all. In my opinion.
| Submitted by: | Bob N 4/13/2009 10:08:47 AM PT |
| Location: | San Francisco |
| Occupation: | consultant |
"but the fact that such a wide range of titles have lost their rankings suggest that whatever Amazon may have been trying to do went haywire."
Uh... on what basis do you decide to accept the "glitch" fig leaf? The wide range? Wide range = gay books.
Not so wide, if you ask me.
| Submitted by: | Jordan McAuley (jmcauley@meganiche.com) 4/13/2009 9:59:40 AM PT |
| Location: | New York City |
| Occupation: | author |
I love Amazon, but this is messed up. I first noticed that the rankings for two of my books, 'The Out Traveler: Atlanta' (OutTravelerAtlanta.com) and 'ATLANTAboy: An Insider's Guide to Gay Atlanta' (ATLANTAboy.com) disappeared a few weeks ago. These are travel guides (in no way adult) that have received positive reviews from mainstream media like the Associated Press, USA Today, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Atlanta magazine, and National Public Radio.
| Submitted by: | Donna George Storey (donna@donnageorgestory.com) 4/13/2009 9:22:22 AM PT |
| Location: | California |
| Occupation: | writer |
As the author of a novel with erotic content that was available at the top of general searches until April 9 (but is now deranked), I'm personally affected by this decision at Amazon from both sides--as a producer and consumer of speech. Unfortunately, this is happening at Amazon UK as well, so I'm afraid the new Amazon Rank morality has crossed the Atlantic, but it's not happening Amazon Japan, Canada or France for some reason. The Internet has made Amazon what it is. This mess has been a wonderful lesson to my children as to why censorship is a very bad thing, and I hope it's also a good lesson to Amazon about who put them where they are and who can take make them fail.
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