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Apparently Amazon.com is removing GLBT books from the rankings pages based on their "adult" status. Read more here:
http://naamah-darling.livejournal.com/394008.html
http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html
A list of affected titles are here:
http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html
Note this is not ALL adult books, just those that have GLBT scenes in them. In once case, there is ONE line that has some sort of sex scene that they removed the whole book.
As far as I could see, all those posts are open and you can read them if you want to. You would have to have a LiveJournal ID to respond, I think.
Joy
Comments
This appears to be true
We've already seen first PayPal and then Adsense decide that transgender content is automatically "sinful" (no other word for it) and so have been banned from the use of services allowed to romance novels and other fiction. Now Amazon is moving that way, perhaps the Amazon ads will be taken away, too.
And if anyone wonders why I insist that no one make moral judgements on stories here on BC, well this is why.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I did a search for "Second Serve"
It gave one copy from a bookseller. When I clicked on the author, Renee Richards I didn't get it or anything related. I've bought TG related autobiographies from Amazon before, so this is very recent...
Hugs
Frank
Don't misunderstand
It's not that they aren't carrying the books but that they aren't allowing them to show up on bestseller lists and some other sorts of searches. It's a petty sort of discrimination that is dehumanizing and likely to be the result of some management decision not to offend the religious right.
I think it's time that the 10-20%+ of Americans (this is Amazon.com only so far) that are GLBT or GLBT involved let businesses know that there are other important groups out there besides the ones who think people need to be protected from their own preferences in reading material.
I'm going to be doing some real thinking about this.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
At some point
You have to say Enough! The lists mentioned are not something I make use of, I normally go looking for something in particular, be it a book, CD or DVD. But it reaches a point where not to say or do something is just wrong.
FWIW, I have used AbeBooks to find a lot of good used books, especially the older, out-of-print items. AbeBooks is kind of a front end for book sellers all across the country. The individual sellerss set their own price and shipping costs, but AbeBooks handles the order processing. It has been a very convenient source for me, and I recommend it to y'all.
http://www.abebooks.com/
Karen J.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
abe books
I have completely stopped using abe books after two experiences where I was charged by a seller and never received the books. Abe books did absolutely nothing to help other than telling me to deal with the seller. After two, I decided to ignore them completely!
Just Bought Kulanu
Just bought Kulanu, a book for inclusion of GLBT Jews published by the Reform movement. I should have my copy within two weeks. It is out of print.
Just out on Publisher's
Just out on Publisher's Weekly.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6651080.html
Amazon Says Glitch to Blame for "New" Adult Policy
By Rachel Deahl & Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/12/2009 5:49:00 PM
A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy.
For most of the weekend on Twitter, in conversations with the hash tag "#amazonfail," users were discussing the fact that the e-tailer was removing the sales rankings for books that it deemed featured "adult content." Many readers, and writers, decried the fact that Amazon appears to be removing the sales ranking for titles that feature gay and lesbian characters and/or themes.
The director of the Erotic Authors Association, who goes by the pen name Erastes, told PW that many of her members "noticed their titles had been stripped of their sales rankings" on Amazon. One, Mark Probst, contacted a customer service representative at Amazon and wrote about the exchange on his blog. Probst wrote that the Amazon rep responded to his inquiry by saying that "'adult' material" is being excluded from appearing in "some searches and best seller lists" as a "consideration of our entire customer base."
Whether a glitch or new policy, titles like James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room and Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain are among the titles who have lost their ranking.
Yeah, right....
----
May the Stars Light Your Path
Maid Joy
I Cannot Say My Opinion on this Matter
BigCloset TopShelf
None of us are expendable, all of us are worthy and valuable as human beings.
Grrrr!
I wonder what they're playing at. Over here in Europe, GLBT book rankings have disappeared from amazon.fr, and amazon.co.uk, but are still on amazon.de. The UK site is still displaying sales rankings for GLBT DVDs. If it was just the American site I would assume it was the religious right, but they tend to ignore Europe as already irredeemably lost anyway :-)
NSP
Distant Sunshine
Amazon and "gender" bias
I have recently (Monday 13 April 9:30 Pm) run a search on Amazon.com for publications which might be gay, lesbian, transexual, transgender... both in books and movies and came back with many titles and sources.
I searched specifically for nearly three dozen of the titles listed on the post as having had their rankings pulled and do not find rankings but when I look under my account for ranking searches at least some of them show up.
I also sent an e-mail to Amazon, with whom I had been negotiating for publication of over a dozen of my transgender works as well as several dozen non-transgendered works, essentially telling them that if they were intent upon violating Federal law as well as my civil rights that I did not intend to continue to publication and if they did place any of my works I would sue them. I have yet to receive a reply but it has only been half an hour so I really do not expect one as yet.
I investigate Lulu but they have not responded to the "unique" compilation of images and words which comprise my (or, in the case of collaberative efforts - our) stories. I am waiting for a reply from Lulu but don't expect it until Thursday or Friday.
Meanwhile, my Amazon searches seem to have more and more material present with the same search repeated hourly...
I don't know what this means but hope they are correcting their "oversight". They apparently were unaware that genetically over 90% of the population of the world is of mixed male/female in any given individual and of that 25 to 35 percent are in a very grey area, thus the gender expressions and "Strange" to the "normal" people (who are actually in the minority as well as biblically incorrect), individuals whom the "normal" people find so distastful.
I should hope that Amazon, should this prove to be the work of a single administrator or of an entire board, will remove those individuals from their employ as well as issue a PUBLIC apology for their actions which are/were both unlawful as well as immoral.
God Bless You all and I shall step down from my soapbox (oh drat, yet another crate of eggs)...