Amazon Claims 'Glitch' Caused Site To Strip Sales Rankings From Gay/Lesbian Books

NEW YORK — A "glitch" on Amazon.com has caused the sales rank to be removed from gay- and/or lesbian-themed books by James Baldwin, Gore Vidal and others.

"There was a glitch in our systems and it's being fixed," Amazon's director of corporate communications, Patty Smith, said in an e-mail Sunday.

As of Sunday night, books without rankings included Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room," Vidal's "The City and the Pillar" and Jeanette Winterson's "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit." The removals prompted furious remarks on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere online.

Craig Seymour, author of the gay memoir "All I Could Bare," wrote on his blog Sunday that his sales rank was dropped in February, then restored nearly four weeks later, after he was told by Amazon that his book had been "classified as an Adult product."

Comments

[Geoffreys]

Just to make their decision that much more foolish, the Kindle Gay/Lesbian rankings have not been affected. They top few bestsellers are still the Romance/soft porn books today just as they were last time I looked.

But, if you go to the best seller list for overall amazon.com, the best sellers in gay/lesbian are all all kindle books.

[insanityfollows]

a glitch aimed solely at gay/lesbian-adult books? Puulleeease!

[liminal67]

Seems a little suspect...

http://pitchbendpost.blogspot.com/

[huffthemagicdragon]

I won't be using Amazon again - Play.com is just as good - and I'll let all my friends know about this censorship.

[DannyEastVillage]

for books:

half.com

for anything else:

overstock.com

[Tom95134]

Is that the sound of the jackboots of the religious right wing marching across books? The next step will be to have the books spontaneously burst into flame when the purchaser opens the package.

[noelalumit]

I'm an author. My work has been classified as "gay." The paperback of my first novel "Letters to MOntgomery Clift" and my second novel "Talking to the Moon" have become unranked by Amazon because it's "adult" material. In other words, they think it's porn.

My first novel was about a boy searching for his mother after she "disappeared" during the Marcos regime in the Philippines. My second novel was about a family reacting to a horrible hate crime. I guess writing about injustice is pornographic by Amazon's standards.

I think my third novel will be about a mega business and their discriminatory practices.

[pickwickianmom]

That just doesn't make sense. Why on earth did they classify the book as "gay lit"?

I was saying earlier that they must have nailed James Baldwin just because he WAS gay. It KILLS me that Baldwin got caught up in this. His life was all about finding a way around barriers and prejudices----he didn't want to prove points and pave the way---he couldn't even understand why these barriers existed at all.

Why would the books you wrote be censored? That is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I'm really sorry. If it helps at all---we are all outraged here.

[kelleya1]

See attached from Mark Probst's blog (one author affected by this "glitch").

"On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: “Transgressions” by Erastes and “False Colors” by Alex Beecroft. . . .The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book “The Filly.” There was buzz, What’s going on? Does Amazon have some sort of campaign to suppress the visibility of gay books? . . .Many of us decided to write to Amazon questioning why our rankings had disappeared. . . . As I am a publisher and have an Amazon Advantage account through which I supply Amazon with my books, I had a special way to contact them.

24 hours later I had a response:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.
Best regards,
Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

Yes, it is true. Amazon admits they are indeed stripping the sales ranking indicators for what they deem to be “adult” material. Of course they are being hypocritical because there is a multitude of “adult” literature out there that is still being ranked . . . They are using categories THEY set up (gay and lesbian) to now target these

[jukesgrrl]

I've never bought a gay romance book in my life, but I'd be happy to join a boycott of Amazon if they insist on classifying gay-themed books as "Adult Material." Unless a book is undoubtedly pornographic, it shouldn't be segregated in any way. It's akin to book burning.

[erichnorse]

Forget romance novels, almost every book that has the words gay or homosexuality in their different variations was deemed as "adult" and stripped of their rankings, didnt matter if it was fiction or non fiction.

And yet many "straight "porn titles and sex toys remain ranked. This was very targeted, what ever it was. Amazon has A LOT of explaining to do.

[Synnerman]

They still rank the Merry Gentry novels which have literal tentacle sex. Amazon's reply is a sham at best.

They need to hurt.