Grrrr.

That's skeevy.

I mean, I could understand it if all erotica was put in the same category*, but to find out that anything focusing on gay and lesbian romance is being shoved in there with the erotica, while het romance isn't... no, not good.

* Though I wonder where the line is between erotica and romance. Or any other kind of genre. It eventually involves someone making a call about the amount of sex in the book, and somehow I doubt Amazon has a crew of readers to go through each book, so it's going to be arbitrary. (Even if it didn't -- I mean, how can you compare, say, sex with violence without imposing some value based on which one would mess up The Children more.)

Oh, FFS, no!

My first reaction: Oh FFS, Amazon.

My second reacion: I shall write a sternly worded letter to them and make a post about their boneheadery.

My third reaction: And from now on my online bookbuying shall go through Powell's. Which, come to think on it I shall mention in my letter to Amazon.

Also? Kindle? Not for me with policies like this.

Well, this adds another reason as to why I won't buy from Amazon.

I don't care what excuse Amazon is using, that is NOT okay. And the idea put forth by a commenter that "it's not censorship, they're just taking it from public display" is also not okay -- it is censorship in the form of relegating those books to a literary ghetto, regardless of actual sexual content. EPIC FAIL, Amazon.

They don't seem to have caught me yet . . .

Problematic, indeed. Not that this is a genre I may be interested in - but what if mine is next?

I go to Amazon to search for those titles I just can't find at my local bookstore. And, occasionally, I do buy something based on a search. But what if what I am searching for no longer shows up?

Think I'll be keeping my eBook.

....oh FOR GOD'S SAKE.

ARGH.

I'm putting links to this everywhere I have space to put links up. This is disgusting.

The Canadian edition doesn't appear to be implementing the same policies. I've sent an email to ask whether they have any plans to do so. Still, I'm reconsidering future purchases.

Amazon.ca is being affected, as is Amazon.co.uk now-

http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11560.html?thread=225832#t225832

I've just checked amazon.co.uk and the rankings appear to still be on over here. So it's an American thing, it appears.

Ah. Well. That is somewhat beyond disappointing. It would appear that my wishlist is moving to Powells.com and Amazon will NOT be getting any of my business from this point on. And I'll be letting them know why and asking my friends and family to do the same.


Edited at 2009-04-12 06:30 pm (UTC)

oh FFS. I already had a stabbity hate for amazon, but this just tops it nicely. I can't wait until Monday when I can talk to the romance editors and see what the industry reaction is to this....

As convenient as Amazon are, this is just another structural member in my decision to buy my books in brick&mortar stores.

I called Amazon's customer service and (at teh customer service rep's suggestion, in fact) also left online feedback. Description of my interactions and text of my 'feedback' here.

The person at customer service told me that it generally takes Amazon about a week to make changes based on feedback because the review people have to read everything.

I do think that getting as many calls and feedback submissions with pertinent information and strong wording out there quickly is probably a good thing.

One wonders, is music by LGBT artists next?

Yet, Playboy's Wet & Wild DVDs are still completely searchable and ranked.

What makes it worse for me (a avid reader) is the founder of Banned Books Week,Judith Krug, died late last night. I can imagine her shaking her ghostly fist in rage at this.

Well, the bigger issue is why do they even have that sorting algorithm in the first place? Why do they even have a category called "adult books that we won't list on the ranks"?

This is super lame, and reminiscent of what K-Mart, Waldenbooks and Barnes & Nobles (among others) did to my dad several years ago. To be fair to B&N, they took what they did back and began selling my dad's books again (sort of), but it was too late and he was already bankrupt. This is super fucked and for some reason surprising. You'd think considering what happened in the past that I wouldn't be surprised, but for some reason, even with all of the crappy stuff Amazon has done, I honestly never thought they would do something like this.