Amazon.Com Banishes Queer SF Writers To A Null Dimension

[Ian David]

Amazon.Com Banishes Queer SF Writers To A Null Dimension
By Charlie Jane Anders, 7:30 AM on Mon Apr 13 2009, 4,125 views

<snip>

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.

But many of the books that were de-ranked, such as David Gerrold's The Martian Child and Nicola Griffith's Ammonite, had no adult themes whatsoever. Non-fiction science books such as Biological Exuberance, a study of homosexuality among animals, were also de-ranked.

By the end of the weekend, after a storm of internet protest, Amazon apparently changed its story and told Associated Press the de-rankings were the result of a "glitch" that was being fixed. (This explanation was greeted with some skepticism online, as the appearance of a Twitter hashtag called "glitchmyass" showed.) When the L.A. Times asked why this "glitch" only affected books with certain types of content, an Amazon.com rep declined to comment.

As a result of stripping the sales rankings from these books, they also disappeared from some searches on Amazon. (It seems as though these books still turn up if you search under "books," but not under the default search, "all departments.") Also, the books disappeared from any bestseller lists. The move did not seem to affect the Kindle editions of any of those books, just the print ones.

Whether the move was a glitch or a deliberate policy that blew up in Amazon's metaphorical face, it affected a decent number of science fiction and science books. Authors like Nicola Griffith and Katherine V. Forrest saw all their science fiction books disappearing from Amazon search results. Also removed were science books like Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Biological Diversity. Curiously, David Gerrold's orgiastic The Man Who Folded Himself was unaffected, but his chaste book The Martian Child was erased. Similarly, Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren seemed unaffected, but most editions of The Einstein Intersection were.



More:
http://io9.com/5209403/amazoncom-banishes-queer-sf-writers-to-a-null-dimension?skyline=true&s=i

[Catamount]

1. That's scary stuff...

especially since I just began negotiation to publish my book through them -not that I'd be affected by this 'glitch'--but the thought of any kind of interference like this is scary.
What is happening to our formerly liberal companies?

K&R

[Ian David]

2. Amazon was NEVER Liberal. n/t

[msongs]

3. bibles are full of debauchery and adult stuff - have they been de-listed too?? nt

[CurtEastPoint]

4. See Americablog's home page for udpated info. Still questions

to be answered but someone has taken responsibility for the hacking.