#Amazonfail

Okay, so, by now, Amazonfail has made headlines in national newspapers and you've probably heard all about it.  If not, the short version is that last weekend over 50,000 books on topics ranging from m/m romance to lesbian parenting were mysteriously stripped of their Amazon sales rank, which also made them disappear from searches of the bookselling behemoth's website.  Included in the mass suppression of ideas were books by Gore Vidal, Mary Renault, and Annie Proulx, as well as  guides to recovering from sexual assault and books with information for people with disabilities. Left untampered with was Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds, and A Parents Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, natch.  Amazon claims the sales rank stripping was done in error, though as of this writing, the company has yet to come forth with a real apology or any specific information about how and why this occurred.  Books do seem to be getting their sales ranks back, though slowly.

It's been a busy week at Friskbiskit, what with the Running Press launch on Monday and all, so I'm only getting around to commenting on this matter now.  Since I'm not a multi-million dollar corporation with the livelihoods of thousands in my hands, my delay seems more forgivable that Amazon's. 

I hardly need to say how deeply I deplore what happened, and how very concerned I am with the way Amazon handled the matter.  Until this incident, I've been pretty laid back about Amazon.  Sure, I thought, they do seem to be attempting to monopolize publishing, but at least their overriding drive to sell as much stuff to as many people as possible will ensure that everyone has a chance to market their product with them.  I know, I know.  I was wrong and now I see the error of my ways.  Monopolies are unhealthy and they lead to abuses (intentional or not and as far as I'm concerned the verdict is still out on this one) like the one we've just seen. 

This seems like a good time to point out to my fellow Kindle owners that we can buy direct on our devices from All Romance eBooks.

Also, from now through Thursday, Loose Id is offering 10 percent off all LGBT ebooks.

Comments

[Lisa]

It affected some 57,000 books, ranging way beyond LGBT topics, and it started months ago. One of the stories coming out from inside sources is that it's a langauge-mixup. Someone in Amazon France made a cataloging error, mixing up the words "adult" (which means "porn" in France), sexuality (which definitely doesn't mean "porn" in the US), and erotica. And, of course, it's also possible that some groups could have abused the report feature to get books delisted.

And then there's the guy on LJ who is claiming that he did it, but no one has been able to verify that his hack actually worked.

I do believe that as a corporation Amazon had no interest in delisting LGBT books. The way "the internets" have responded as if they expect a large corporation to be able to track down and solve the problem instantly, especially over a holiday weekend, is unreasonable. These things take time to solve -- even more so if it's a large multi-national corporation.

[Jessica Freely]

Oh, the reason I deplore their response is not because the problem wasn't fixed instantly. What I'm appalled by is their lack of communication. They haven't been forthcoming about what happened and what they're doing about it. The fact that the theory of what happened which makes the most sense comes from someone who used to work for them and who has talked to some people on the inside is a perfect example of what's wrong here. Sure, mistakes happen, but you've got to own up to them. It's Wednesday. Where's Jeff Bezos' statement? They needed to get in front of this and instead they hid.

[Jessica Freely]

And interestingly, whether the rank stripping was intentional or not has zero impact on how it affects the sales of the books in question.

Here's a great post about the privilege of getting the benefit of the doubt:
http://rnash.com/article/amazonfail-a-straight-white-male-publisher-on-glitches-and-ham-fisted-error/

[Kl]

Saw this and thought of you:

Amazon launches "gay" Kindle to make up for "glitch" - http://www.afterelton.com/blog/michaeljensen/gay-kindle