Dampening my snickering glee at being ranked among Movements and Periods is the news that Amazon seems to be stripping the sales figures and accompanying rankings from GLBTQ books, erotica, and romance novels, particularly those with what they term “adult content.”
In short: someone in Amazon has utter shit for brains.
Authors such as Jaci Burton, Maya Banks, Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler have reported that since being stripped of their sales rankings, their titles are no longer found in searches on Amazon.com. MetaWriter is also compiling a list of titles that have been stripped of their sales rank.
When pressed for a reason, Amazon.com’s customer service department told YA author Mark Probst:
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.
What, I ask, the fucking fuckhell? Many an Amazon customer is infuriated, and the #amazonfail hashtag on Twitter has pretty much become the only thing worth following. What to do, what to do?
It’s time to hit ‘em where it hurts. No, not a boycott. When you want someone to pay attention, you hit ‘em in the PR.
It’s Google Bomb Time!
We did it for Bill Napoli. Now it’s Amazon’s turn. As always, fuckwittery should not go unrewarded. We propose the following entry be entered into the lexicon:
Amazon Rank
amazon rank
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): amazon ranked1. To censor and exclude on the basis of adult content in literature (except for Playboy, Penthouse, dogfighting and graphic novels depicting incest orgies).
2. To make changes based on inconsistent applications of standards, logic and common sense.Etymology: from 12 April 2009 removal of sales rank figures from books on Amazon.com containing sexual, erotic, romantic, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or queer content, rendering them impossible to find through basic search functions at the top of Amazon.com’s website. Titles stripped of their sales rankings include “Bastard Out of Carolina,” “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” several romance novels, GLBTQ fiction novels, YA books, and narratives about gay people.
Example of usage: “I tried to do a report on Lady Chatterly’s Lover for English Lit, but my teacher amazon ranked me and I got an F on grounds that it was obscene.”
Alternate usage: “My girlfriend wanted to preserve her virginity, and I was happy to respect that, then she amazon ranked and decided anal sex was okay.”
Making this the top result, which is also dependent upon algorithms and shit, requires help from you savvy folks.
I’ve created a page with the definition for “amazon rank.” LINK TO http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/amazonrank with “Amazon Rank” as the anchor text. The link should look like this:
This is known as Google-bombing.
Second of all: Urbandictionary.com. We’re creating a definition and if it’s approved, you can vote on it to increase its prominence. Vote early, vote often to increase the definition’s power.
All you have to do is link to the page using these words: Amazon Rank. The more you do it, the higher up in rank the page will go, and the more successful it will be. One would hope.
The goal: that “Amazon Rank” points to the definition that underscores Amazon.com’s shortminded censorship and inconsistent policing of what ought to be accessible to the book buying public.
ETA: As of 6:15pm EST/2:25pm SBTB Time, we are number one in google results for Amazon Rank. Holy smoke. Behold the power of angry bookfolk, Twitter, and the interweb.
ETA: As of 7:54pm EST, Amazon has given out a host of explanations, which I’ve heard from Twitterers, along the lines of “people complained” to “we will have more information tomorrow.” I smell a giant meeting in PR at Amazon HQ bright and early tomorrow. We’ll see what the morning brings.
But in my inbox, an email from Craig Seymour whose book, All I Could Bare, a memoir of his job as a stripper, was stripped of sales rank back in February 2009, despite memoirs from prominent pornography actors remaining within the ranks. So this has been creeping up insidiously, it seems, until massive delisting occurred over the last few days. Pokes some mammoth stripper-pole sized holes in the “we responded to customer complaints” response.
Jane from DA has, of course has a template response letter to send, as well as links and a full-bodied explanation of why sales rank is important. Carolyn Kellogg from the LA Times book blog also covered the story today. We’ll see what tomorrow brings in #amazonfail.
ETA 9:13 pm EST: Oh Noes! It was a glitch! One that’s been in operation since February, according to Craig Seymour, and one that clearly should be blamed for a whole mess of other problems.
It wasn’t just because of Easter. I did a search on Thursday for Erastes’ Transgressions because we were featuring an excerpt on Unusual Historicals. Even thought it’s still listed as a Kindle edition, Transgressions in print did not come up in a search. Thought it was weird, but chalked it up to being an Amazon goof, not a deliberate policy. Asshats.
The search is #1 now, even without quotes, caps, etc. Nice work, bitches.
@Carrie Lofty Not just Thursday, I’ve been hearing that this has been going on from FEB – at least!
Results 1 – 10 of about 74,300,000 for Amazon Rank. (0.04 seconds)
Good
It’s also worth mentioning that not all LGBTQ-themed books have lost their rankings.
A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, for instance, is still ranked.
I’m thinking that makes their motives unmistakably clear.
Okay, I’m the first to admit that while computer-literate, I don’t get a lot of the nuts and bolts, like how exactly a google bomb works, etc. That said, I guess my impression was that none of the gay/lesbian/bi/transgendered stuff was showing up unless you searched specific books, but I just did several searches of different things, including the word “erotica”, and a number of items showed up.
Let me reiterate…I don’t get it. Did Amazon switch back to the way it was in the wake of this response? Is there something I’m simply missing? I’d appreciate it if someone would fill me in.
Thanks.
And my word is anti66. Very funny.
And thus ends my attempt to be even-handed and fair by assuming that they didn’t understand all the implications of the adult label.
If this has been going on since February then they’ve had plenty of time to figure it out and correct it. Since they didn’t, I’m going back to my natural state of being cynical and angry. What were they thinking?
Done—fucking fuckwits fucking up fucking everything with their fuckwittery. Idiocy—why can’t we outlaw general idiocy? We can activate the cockroach-footed sphinter police for people’s love lives, but we can’t keep idiots from fucking with the arts? *snarl*
@ Tina C—Not all the books have been stripped of their rankings, and of the books that have, not all of the editions have been stripped. So some still show up in searches. For example, search for “Unfriendly Fire”. The Kindle edition pops up, but nothing else, and a few days ago the book was on the top ten list. This thing has been applied incredibly unevenly, but the fact that it’s happening at all is still unacceptable.
My book still shows up on a search for “Messalina” but my sales rank is gone. I’ve linked your creative definition to my Full-Bodied (Book) Blog.
What utter madness…
re:malnpudl,
ha! that reeks of something aweful I hope it´s not
It’s at number one!
I’m putting a “Rank-stripped by Amazon 55 times” banner on my websites tomorrow. With entry to your google bomb, ladies.
I’d do it tonight if I could, but I’ve got an evening’s worth of drive time coming up.
I suggest a second alternate definition:
Amazon Rank: n. The putrid smell of stupid currently emanating from Amazon…
LOL, Raven!
Watch this youtube vid by PolkaVlog:
comment and rate so it will appear on Most Watched or whatever it´s called on youtube
Came home from Easter dinner with the family, and found my LiveJournal flist full of google bombings! I put my little grenade in my journal and checked Google—the SB bomb is the #1 result. Go, go, Gadget Internet!
I’ve Facebooked with the customer service email address and also signed the Facebook petition protesting this.
This makes me so angry, I want to punch someone.
I just don’t understand how a retailer like Amazon can censor what is a best seller and what is not. They sell the books but won’t let the books take the claim to fame on their lists yet take all the profit for the sales of said books. Something is just not right.
If an author writes a book and Amazon sells it and said book sells tens of thousands of copies, the author is entitled to see their book on the best seller list.
Get your stuff together Amazon. You don’t want to lose customers due to your infantile censorship. If you sell the book, the author is entitled to your best sellers list.
Done.
It’s on my blog.
Done!
spam word: comes64. I only hope so!
Yes! The whole issue is up on Jezebel.com! 🙂
I called their customer service number and told them I wasn’t buying from them until this straightened out, but frankly, this has left a bad taste in my mouth regarding their company. This is their number: 1-800-201-7575.
Keep up the good work bitches!
Oh SB Sarah, can you add “amazon rankings” to your bomb? I’ve linked off of Facebook and will now add it to the Twitter. : )
I posted it on my lj blog and posted a note on my facebook page.
It would be bad enough if a big company like that chose not to sell “certain types” of books; that they’ll make profit off the books and then turn around and do this is just despicable.
Well, huzzah for the power of us…
And Raven, love your alternate definition!
All the rankings have been stripped from every MLR Press title on Amazon. Every last one of them.
Done and done.
Meanwhile, this book shows up in the Kindle store romance section when you do a sort by pub date, which is the only way to find newly listed books.
Well, how interesting. Your blacklist words won’t even let me post the link because of the words in the name of the book.
Ok, do this. Search Amazon using “Super Hero – College Break” as see what comes up. And boy does the cover image come up.
Vicki
I’ve linked to Amazon Ranking as well, just to make sure it sticks up there. 🙂 And I think I will be buying some of the books deranked from some nonAMazon company.
I just knew you’d be on top of this.
I can’t see it lasting long, quite apart from your efforts. Many of those books sell well and I don’t see publishers standing for it.
I just signed the petitions to Amazon. What truly boggles my marketer mind (my profession) is that Amazon management did not anticipate the repercussions of this decision. For an Internet-based company, their management shows a complete lack of understanding of how the Internet has empowered consumers. Amazon will pay the price, literally, for this decision when they are forced to spend Mega $$$$$ to counteract the negative publicity. There is a precedent for it, trust me. I wonder if Oprah knows yet? 😉 She just might do a take-back on her Kindle endorsement.
On the boards where I’m discussing this there seems a lot of disbelief. I’ve also stumbled across a couple writers who suggest that any sort of boycott hurts them more than helps them.
Hey, I’m not even boycotting at this point—more like a spending freeze, which means I might have to un-pre-order the Kindle edition of Heaving Bosoms—would get it elsewhere. I was like a squirrel in my buying habits anyhow—have plenty of nuts to enjoy. Um. I mean, plenty of books TBR.
I still believe they’re going to realize that they’ve made a huge mistake.
Now the question becomes: Which Focus on the Family-type monstrosity has been pressuring Amazon behind the scenes to enact this sly change? Amazon can hide behind their “adult content” shield, hoping people notice what that does and doesn’t include—without doing something as obvious as simply yanking the offending titles. I sincerely doubt it was Bezos suddenly finding God and hatin’ Teh Gheys. There had to have been the threat of a boycott behind this, with Amazon trying to have it all ways. Too bad they got caught.
wow, just did a search on my books, and none of my Aphrodisia books come up. My Bravas come up fine, but even if I search by title, I can’t find any of my other books on sale 🙁
does anyone know if borders.com or B&N online have done anything similar? (and sorry in advance if someone already answered that Q -late to the game and behind in the comments)
Aw, bless ya’ll! Your awesome is such that you make it easier for the rest of us to kick butt and take names. Thank you.
Can’t seem to get the “it’s just a glitch!” website to load.
I’ve linked to Amazon Rank and blogged about your wonderful post. Thanks for your help leading the charge to tell Amazon they cannot do this to people who read and support them. I noticed that my erotic novel Amorous Woman was no longer appearing on general searches on Thursday. Then the sales rank disappeared. I thought it was a small-scale thing, but nope, someone is trying to keep all of America safe from “adulthood.” Except, a book of Playboy centerfolds is still okay—and how’s that? Who is deciding these things? I am totally ready to boycott them and they had been getting a lot of money from me. I hope it hurts ‘em BAD.
Yep. And of course, the large-scale enacting over a long holiday weekend, when presumably, people are too busy to notice what’s going on with Teh Internets.
Just goes to show—Bitches and the Internets never really sleep.