AmazonFail, roundup.

[alex_beecroft]

Sales Ranks disappearing on Amazon?  What is going on?

Copied from storm_grant 's LJ

On the issue of Amazon suddenly stripping sales ranks from m/m, f/f and erotica, actual facts have been obtained.

Amazon is protecting is general readership from the evol gay and the pr0n. Read here: http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html

http://vashtan.livejournal.com/490173.html

asknosecrets is collecting links here: http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11560.html

storm_grant  got #amazonfail going on twitter. Go tweet and protest! Think of it as signing an e-petition, only with 140 characters to express your outrage!

vashtan  is compiling a list of books that have been affected, here: http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html


What can you do?

Copied from erastes LJ

1. Sign the petition

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy

2. Write to the CEO

Jeffrey Bezos. 
1200 12th Avenue South, 
Seattle, 
Washington 98144-2734, 
United States
Phone: 206-266-1000
Fax: 206-622-2405

3. Contact info for Amazon for calls, emails, faxes letters

http://clicheideas.com/amazon.htm

Also, if you have a book or books affected by the censorship, add their names to the list on meta_writer above.
Inform your publisher.
Write to any gblt paper you may be associated with.
Change your buy links for your books so they no longer link to Amazon.
If you were thinking of buying a Kindle, don't!

~*~*~*~

On an unrelated issue but a perfect example of bad timing,

I am not going to be here from this evening until late Monday night, as I've got a reenactment event booked which I can't get out of, but I'll try and catch up with my emails and comments when I get home.

Comments

[keesiegirls.livejournal.com]

The first question that occurs to me is, if it's "adult" material that Amazon wants to "protect" its customers from, are they also removing rankings for straight romances, most of which these days have graphic sex scenes? And are probably also one of their largest selling categories...

[mirien.livejournal.com]

I've emailed with all the polite disgust at my disposal - well ok, I called them liars in a very veiled way - and will see what they say. I'm not holding my breath, but if enough people cause a fuss in any way they can, who knows?

[mrs-norrington.livejournal.com]

Thanks for letting me know about this. Next time I plan on purchasing books, I'll go elsewhere.

[wulfila.livejournal.com]

I checked on amazon.de, and the sales ranks are gone there as well - but, bizarrely enough, only from English-language books that are openly recognizable as dealing with m/m themes (right down to Mary Renault's "The Charioteer"), but not from English books less openly recognizable as having m/m content (I checked "The Persian boy" and the Nightrunner series) and - that is the remarkable thing - not from German m/m books.

So I suspect this new policy might be catering to specific moral objections in English-speaking countries (the USA, specifically?).

In any case, it is ridiculous that this is how they would define "adult" texts...

[layangabi.livejournal.com]

Oh my God.

I thought (or hoped, maybe) it was a glitch. That is not what I expected from Amazon. At all.

*feels...wrathful*

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the helpful links. Here, at last, is fail that truly qualifies as "epic." I have no words.

Cultural tone-deafness, anyone?

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

They chose the week two more states legalized same-sex marriage to go on an anti-gay crusade.

Hello! Amazon? This is not an argument the homophobes are winning. Which makes it a bad business decision to side with them.

Stupid corporation. Have some brains.

(Yes, I will tell them that personally. And cancel my account with them. Morons!)

[orchidee.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh! You have a livejournal! Okay, that sounds weird, but I'm a bookseller who's been talking up False Colors sight unseen for the last month or so, to anyone who looks like they'll stand still long enough to listen.

With the whole Amazon fail that's happening now (thank you for standing up and helping organize, by the way), this is possibly not the best time to come running in and doing the equivalent of a fangirl squee, but I'm doing it anyway. I'm really excited about your latest book.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

::hates on amazon::

But, on the plus side, the widely-read gawker.com is advertising your book:

http://gawker.com/5209381/why-amazon-cant-just-call-gay-blacklist-a-glitch

Demi-yay?

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Sorry your book has been affected by this. Needless to say, I will be contacting Amazon to voice my extreme displeasure. What an idiotic move on their part! It's going to cause them nothing but grief.