Last weekend, author Mark Probst sparked a massive social-civil storm against giant online bookseller Amazon.com when he posted the following on his Livejournal:
On Amazon.com two days ago… sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books… The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book “The Filly.” …Many of us decided to write to Amazon questioning why our rankings had disappeared. Most received evasive replies… 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.
Amazon’s reply?
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.
In response, angry Amazon customers and slighted authors united under a common online banner —Amazonfail—and called the retailer out via a swarm of Twitter posts. They accused Amazon of stripping sales ranking and searchability, two key factors that drive recommendations and sales in Amazon’s system, from books featuring positive homosexual and transgender content while titles like Playboy’s Complete Centerfolds and books with anti-gay messages were unaffected.
When Amazon representatives finally addressed what was quickly becoming a PR nightmare, the general consensus-slash-excuse surfacing from the rubble was that Amazonfail was the result of a programming glitch affecting almost 60,000 titles rather than a new policy dictating categorical censorship.
For a full summary of the incident, check out BBC’s How Amazonfail was born.
Amazon Dissing Books? I’ll Show Them!
My initial response to what I perceived as Amazon’s anti-LGBT censorship was to replace my Web site and Facebook page links to Twenty Boy Summer’s Amazon listing with links to Barnes & Noble and Indiebound. I also posted a blog entry notifying readers about the Amazonfail debacle, my position on it, and the changes I made to my book’s links.
Following Amazon’s post-fail claims, I wondered whether my boycott was reactionary. Companies, like people, make mistakes and should be allowed to apologize for and remedy their follies. So I decided that if Amazonfail was truly perpetuated by an ill-programmed bit of code that could be identified and quickly amended, I should reinstate the links to my book’s Amazon listing and continue my almost-daily obsession with monitoring my own Amazon sales ranking.
But Amazon never posted an acknowledgment, explanation, or apology on their Web site. Of the almost-daily recommendations and promotional emails I receive from the company, none ever mentioned the Amazonfail debacle or their plan to correct the affected listings. In fact, other than their standard-issue PR statement calling the whole thing “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error,” Amazon has been conspicuously absent from their own poop-storm (yes, I said poop-storm. If Amazon can say ham-fisted, I can say poop-storm).
Furthermore, some are claiming that aggressive anti-LGBT censorship is not only still happening at Amazon, but has been in practice for more than a year. Check out Francine Saint Marie’s Amazon’s “Glitch” Myth Debunked at AfterEllen.com for a frustrating example of one author’s losing battle to reinstate the rankings and search engine listings of her Kindle titles.
Francine’s ordeal, coupled with Amazon’s MIA status, is enough for me to keep my current anti-Amazon stance. But there’s something else keeping me off Amazon—something that Amazonfail has brought to my attention with a swift kick.
Indies & Libraries: Baby, Give Me One More Chance
Whether the cause was censorship, programming glitch, or plain old stupidity, Amazonfail helped me realize that because of my former love for Amazon, I’ve abandoned the community indies and libraries. By over-relying on the ease, speed, and dependability of Amazon’s one-click-and-your-done system, I’ve erased the personal connection. No longer do I seek recommendations from my local bookseller or librarian. Don’t need to—I have Amazon’s complex algorithms to scan my buying habits and match me up with targeted recommendations based on the buying and rating habits of people Just Like Me. Why have a conversation with a store employee about her favorite YA title or the fantasy books she can’t keep on the shelves when I can just click a few buttons and wait for a shiny new stack of books to arrive, as if by magic, on my front porch? And I certainly have no use for running my hand along the plastic-coated spines looking for a random title to jump out at me from the library shelves—my nano-friends at Amazon are working behind the particle scenes and across the wireless wires to scan all the options for me.
And you know what? That makes me infinitely sad!
So I’m turning out that silver lining and using Amazonfail as a kickstart to get back out in my neighborhood and talk it up with my fellow book-lovers. The indie and the library are right down the street from me! I got a new library card last week and I already checked out Jellicoe Road (can’t put it down!). There was something very comforting in the process, handing over my card and hearing the beep of the scanner that logged my library loan. The librarian smiled. I smiled. He handed me the book and my due date printout and I took them into my hands and walked past all the old shelves, past the computer terminals and the teen section and the large print editions, out the glass front door and right into the sunlight, hands wrapped around that shiny library-bound edition. Oh, happy day!
Thank you, Amazon, for the reminder.
What Do You Think?
How do you feel about Amazonfail? Do you believe the “glitch” explanation? Do you think Amazon handled the crisis appropriately? Readers, has Amazonfail changed your book-buying habits? Authors, have you shifted online promotions to other retailers? Leave some love in the comments and let us know your thoughts!
Happy reading!
Sarah Ockler, author of Twenty Boy Summer
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Comments
1 Larry Schliessmann // Apr 20, 2009 at 5:28 am
I enjoy brick and mortar bookstores and do most of my book buying there. Amazon’s policies leave much to be desired. If you are a POD author, but not through their POD “branch”, Amazon does not include a buy-it-now button with your books. They’ll list them, but customers must buy from Amazon sellers, which causes not only a delay, but makes the book seem out-of-print or used. Sales are rare.
It is a shame that Amazonfail happened, but truthfully, I do not think they will do anything other than what they believe will produce the highest profit.
It is also a shame that the level of prejudice in America seems to be increasing. Makes me wonder if social evolution is at all related to species evolution, which may be at a standstiil anyway.
Raise a fist and fight on!
2 Catherine // Apr 20, 2009 at 5:41 am
Because I live outside the US (New Zealand), the cost of shipping and currency-conversion meant that Amazon.com was merely a place where I could window-shop – yes, the starting price of a book might have been lower than what I’d pay down at Whitcoulls or Borders, but add on shipping etc. it’d be twice the price.
I have switched (or at least started to switch) the purchase links on my review blog from the Amazon.com store to other online store links, and I no longer link to my Amazon.com wishlist.
One good thing to come out of Amazonfail (via Sarah Rees Brennan) is the discovery of The Book Depository which does free worldwide shipping. My first book from my first purchase arrived today, and the second should arrive tomorrow or Wednesday. A fail for Amazon has meant a win for both TBD and me.
Oh, and I have a nice list of GLBT titles to check out at some point too.
3 Mark A. Michaels // Apr 20, 2009 at 6:01 am
Those who think this is over are mistaken. Amazon has not come clean about either the “glitch” or its policy, nor has it fully fixed the problem, if that was ever the intention.
I believe that amazon was being truthful when it claimed that GLBT material was not the only target and that over 50,000 titles were affected, but that may be the only forthright statement the company has made on this subject. Both our books, along with many other titles on Tantra, were de-ranked. And this issue isn’t limited to books. We’ve made two instructional DVDs; both are explicit; one was (and remains) de-ranked and the other was not, which just illustrates the arbitrary nature of this “policy.”
As of this morning and ever since our books were de-ranked, name searches for myself have not come up with the print editions of either book. The Kindle versions show up, as does our still-ranked DVD. It’s also clear that some kind of filtering is in place for adult material on my amazon homepage. Given my browsing history, there ought to be a lot more sex-related material, as there used to be. It’s also evident that our de-ranked DVD is no longer being paired with other films under the “Frequently Bought Together” listing.
Amazon has enormous power, if not a near-monopoly. These measures limit customer access to our books and one of our DVDs, making them harder to find for those who are actively seeking them and directing those who might be interested to other products that haven’t arbitrarily been designated as “adult.” This is a pernicious form of corporate censorship.
Amazon secretly tags certain materials as adult, gives no notice to authors (or producers, in the case of the DVD, I checked) and provides no recourse for challenging that designation. This uproar may have been caused by a technical error that led to the inclusion of many additional books in the “adult” category, but the attitude itself, the utter lack of transparency, and the continuing failure to respond in a meaningful way are the real issues.
At this point, I’m through with amazon, as convenient as it may be. I’ll be boycotting; we’ll be replacing our amazon bookstore and link to indiebound.org instead. I’ve also notified the Authors Guild, and hope they’ll take on the cause.
Here’s what amazon should do, if it wants any of my business back (though I’d probably limit purchases to electronics and the like.) Come clean about the existence of this policy; let the public know exactly what that policy is and what criteria are used when materials are designated as “adult;” provide authors with a mechanism to challenge the designation; stop hiding materials from customers who might want to purchase them; make the ranking system fair and accurate by including all books and DVDs in its catalog. If amazon deems it necessary to have a filtering system, a safe search approach would be a much less damaging way to do it, but I’m not convinced that such a feature would be necessary.
The policy, not the “glitch,” is the problem. It always has been. The glitch just brought attention to a secret policy that is unacceptable in its own right.
Sorry for any typos or redundancies in this post; the lack of a preview function makes it hard to proofread.
4 Lauren Bjorkman // Apr 20, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Amazonfail has opened my eyes, and changed my buying habits in a good way!
5 Doret // Apr 20, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Hopefully this Amazonfail will mean business for bookstores because bookstores need customers right now. I know Amazon is quick and you don’t have to leave the house or get out of your P.J’s but there is something about interacting with a bookseller that Amazon can’t replace. Sure it can show you 5 stars for Graceling or Crooked Kind of Perfect but a bookseller will make you feel it. Booksellers and customers can bond over the books they love, you can’t do that with your computer. And though I work at a bookstore, I still give my library card a work out.
6 C. Lee McKenzie // Apr 21, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Coming as this has just now is very ironic. I just switched to doing business with Amazon because I was running short of time to scout the Indies. It won’t be difficult to reverse that decision, so I probably will.
7 Elena // Jun 5, 2009 at 12:07 am
Hello Sarah — I live abroad, Amazon has always been very convenient for me, I’ve spent a hefty chunk at Amazon over the past 20 years, but haven’t spend a dime since April. Still, I’m not altogether certain that’s the right course of action, because in a way it gives validity to this monstrously unfair and disgusting policy of plain and simple censorship.
Maybe I can buy my books elsewhere, but by doing so I am validating Amazon’s narrow minded view of the world, I am accepting that censorship is OK, and I am just giving up and accepting to lose this moral battle. Like I said, I’m not convinced this is the right course of action for me.
You quote Francine Saint Marie’s quest – I’ve been following that one, and I am rather shocked at the lack of commentary and/or support from other authors on the topic. Granted, it’s not easy nor fun to fight against the machine, but what is achieved by staying put and not saying anything? Just that Amazon’s “adult” policy is withheld with total impunity, and that the near monopoly that they are dictates in practice what people may find and eventually read.
The latest disgrace in this story – which by no means concluded at the end of April, is that Amazon has removed the author’s blogs from the selling point. Francine Saint Marie kept blogging on Amazon about this censorship ordeal (along the lines of what can be read in the linked article), until a couple of days ago when Amazon decided they’d had enough and just took the blog down. Just like that.
In my opinion, this goes beyond book buying habits, to me personally it’s turned into a matter of rectifying a serious wrong.
Thanks for the space to put a word in.
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