janedavitt

Amazon are cracking down on covers with explicit images and really setting the bar low before they put a book behind an adult filter.

"bare butt cheeks, hands on breasts, or people in handcuffs (even if it’s a non-sexual situation)"

If you'd prefer to be shown everything they're selling, not a limited amount, this post

http://musecharmer.com/information-about-amazons-adult-content-filter/

gives details of how to find out if the filter is enabled for you and cancel it if you choose, though it might be a temporary fix.

This annoys me. The cover the post tells you to search from isn't objectionable and hiding books not only affects sales for the authors but smacks of hypocrisy. If Amazon are willing to sell the books, then they should stop clutching their pearls over the covers.

In the comments to the post, someone shares a stock reply they got from Amazon who point to their guidelines as justification.

Oh. Those again. I remember those!

Your books and other content (such as book titles, cover art and product descriptions) must adhere to these content guidelines. We reserve the right to make judgments about whether content is appropriate and to choose not to offer it. We may also terminate your participation in the KDP program if you don't adhere to these content guidelines.

Pornography
We don't accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.

Offensive Content
What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect.

Clear as mud. And notice the lacks of detail here as opposed to the hands on breasts specifics I quoted? I'm not sure where that list came from. I've seen it in other places than the post so it's floating around.

'The Square Peg' is now available at Amazon -- and it's currently at position 5,142 in all Kindle books! There are a couple of million of them, so that's pretty cool.

The Square Peg

I was checking out some children's books on Amazon for Lauren and the Kindle versions are 91 cents more than the paperbacks.

Okay, that's not much, but...why? No paper, no delivery costs, no ink... The cost of editing is the same for both and can be split, so can the cover art. I guess there could be an additional charge for the formatting but even so.

Weird. I expect the e-books to be cheaper, not more.

And while I'm moaning, why the hell can't Amazon.ca have Kindle books of its own? Or the wide range of goods that Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk has? We're not exactly a tiny country that's hard to get to. And why, when our dollars are pretty much equal, do our books cost so much more than the US ones?

Humph.

My icon's reminded me that Richard Burgi is on Chuck again tonight. I feel more cheery.

Just before we left to spend the day with friends I was alerted to the situation at Amazon (thanks rakshanda!).

Wild Raspberries has been stripped of its sales ranking; at one point last year 35,000 in Amazon overall and 6th best seller in gay romance.

Drawing Closer hasn't yet, or it hadn't, and I've screencapped that for proof.

I had time to dash off a quick letter to Amazon which hasn't been replied to yet, unsurprisingly given the day and the fact that I bet they're swamped.

So furious about this hypocrisy and the motives behind it.

If you're an author of a GLBT book featured there and your sales rank has gone, there's a post here where meta_writer is collecting all the affected titles:

http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html

ETA

This is what Amazon told one person who wrote in:

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.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,

Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage


This is the email I wrote to:

connect-help@amazon.com

You can google this page:

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/amazonrank/

And there's a petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy

I am totally baffled about this from a cold, business POV. They've unleashed a storm of outrage that will hit them in the pocket; I spend easily $1000.00 a year there as I do all my birthday/Christmas shopping for the people back in the UK through them as well as buying many books and DVDs. The loss of my thousand dollars won't affect them but multiply that by the thousands of other people who'll boycott them and it might register as a blip.

So what have they gained?

Who have they pleased?

Who will spend more money there as a result?

Damned if I know. A few homophobic extremists who, in the US, no longer have an administration sympathetic to them? That's about it.

They've lost respect and revenue and gained nothing.

Smart move, Amazon. Real smart.

ETA 2 Amazon told Publishers Weekly that it was a glitch.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6651080.html

The facts do not seem to support that as it seems to have been going on since February and is so very specifically targeted.