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

[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...

B & N policy?

[keesiegirls.livejournal.com]

With all the comments about switching links and purchasing to Barnes & Noble, do we have any assurance that they are not going to follow Amazon's lead? My guess from the beginning was that Amazon was caving in to pressure, or the threat or possibility of pressure, from the US religious right. And unfortunately, there are more of them than us... We must remember that Amazon is a large corporation, and my impression is that with most large corporations, money trumps integrity every time.

Re: B & N policy?

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

See my comment below. The extremists foaming at the mouth over this are not a majority of the US population. And the tide is blatantly turning against them. Which makes this move on Amazon's part a stupid decision from a business perspective.

Re: B & N policy?

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I don't know about B&N, to be honest. I've had reports that they are re-ranking False Colors and Transgressions as 'gay fiction' rather than 'romance', and my publishers are looking into that. But for the moment I'd still much rather support a company that makes a small discrimination like that than a company like Amazon that makes a huge discrimination like stripping the rank from gay-positive *theology* or children's books like 'Heather has two Mommies."

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

It seems that they stripped the sales ranks from any book which was classified as 'gay' or 'lesbian. So - exactly as you say - they only stripped the rankings from books which were easily recognizable as having glbt content. It looks very much like a response to American fundamentalist pressure. Now, of course, they're saying its a mistake
http://blog.seattlepi.com/amazon/archives/166329.asp
but I'll only believe it when all the books have their ranks restored!