Here, have a heaping helping of #amazonfail

[annathepiper]

So as I was waiting for Norwescon to wind down, I settled in to hang out in the lobby and check in online. And I found that the Internet has apparently exploded this afternoon. Yeah yeah yeah, I hear you say, isn’t the Internet always exploding about something or other?

This one, though, is personal. They’re calling it #amazonfail on Twitter, and here’s the sitch: apparently Amazon has started de-ranking books on “adult” topics. This has the effective result of making books so quantified very, very hard to find on the site; it’s the equivalent of pulling them off the shelves in a physical bookstore and forcing people to go to the Customer Service desk to ask for copies.

The problem? By “adult”, they’re including a whole host of GBLT-themed books, many of which aren’t “adult” in theme at all, such as Heather Has Two Mommies and John Barrowman’s autobiography. To add insult to injury, if you search for “homosexuality” on Amazon right now, the top hit is something called A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Books of similar nature also show up in the top ten search results.

And this hits me where it hurts. Those of you who have read Faerie Blood know that two of the second-tier characters are a male couple, and should I get to write Books 2 and 3, chances are good that a couple of the other second-tier, female characters will form a couple as well. So if this policy of Amazon’s remains in place by the time Faerie Blood comes out, it’s certainly possible that you’d have a hard time finding the book there.

While I respect the principle of needing to be careful with adult content on a site that can be searched by minors, I am deeply offended that what’s getting called “adult” in this case is so blatantly discriminatory. I’ll be telling them as much, and I’ll be prepared to take my business elsewhere if this policy does not reverse itself pronto.

Pertinent links I’ve found so far include:

http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11369.html
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/04/12/amazon-censors-its-rankings-search-results-to-protect-us-against-glbt-books/
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/04/12/amazon-rank/
http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/amazon-rank/

For those of you on Twitter, follow the #amazonfail hashtag. There’s also a petition you can sign if you choose to here.

ETA: Since I’ve been asked on Facebook, here’s a quote from dearauthor.com about how to express your opinion on this matter to Amazon:

Amazon executive customer service email is: ecr@amazon.com and the customer service phone number is 1-800-201-7575.

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

Comments

[firni.livejournal.com]

Customer service is begging people to stop calling. After all, Bezos and the other management weenies are probably at home or on their yachts right now.

[annathepiper]

*snerk* I can't imagine it's very fun to be a CSR at Amazon today, no. Especially given that it's Easter, and anybody who's had to work today is going above and beyond the call regardless.

But yeah. It'll be interesting to see if the management actually says anything tomorrow.

[annathepiper]

I'm dubious about this theory, although scanning over that link, I'm less dubious than I initially was when you mentioned it. It'll be real interesting to see what Amazon actually says if they issue an official statement. I'm going to give them until tomorrow to see if something arises; if not, it's cranky mail time.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

Does B&N do this? I can just stop using Amazon and use B&N, unless they do it too.

[annathepiper]

I have heard no word about B&N having pulled anything similar on their own system; they've barely been mentioned in the outcry today. Some judicious investigation is probably warranted, just for solid comparison purposes.

I'm also seeing word from folks like John Scalzi that it'd be good to at least give it until tomorrow to see if Amazon issues an official statement. Which is fair 'nuff, given that today is Easter. So I'm going to hold until then to send cranky mail.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

I wrote & asked them, and they said it's a glitch and they're fixing it... I don't have time to search & call them on it, though; will hold off on the "Did our response answer your question?" until somebody tells me the glitch has indeed been fixed!

[annathepiper]

As a (belatedly) followup to this, I've heard different responses around the net at this point about whether or not this was a "glitch". Seems to remain an open point of concern.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

Where can I track this? I don't want to use Amazon until I'm sure that, at the very least, the "glitch" has been fixed and the searches & rankings are working properly again.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

After reading through some of the links, I expect that if the hypothesis about an autoresponse to a small group's actions is true that we'd see books about strip mining affected, too.

Not joking. A large percentage of the sort of person who would do this would see the word "strip" in the title or description and mark it in Pavlovian response. Besides this, many conservatives are supportive of strip mining while many books about it aren't.

[howlinhobbit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

I was following this brouhaha a bit on Twitter yesterday. You missed mentioning the truly fabulous google bomb that was put together and succeeded in a remarkably short time.

Just google 'amazon rank' and see the top result (not counting the 'news result'... which is on the same subject).

[annathepiper]

You're right, I did leave that out, although I did link to the Smart Bitches post that actually started the whole thing, so I did mention it indirectly! ;)

I do (heart) the Smart Bitches.