Insert Witty Journal Title Here

Just found out about this while reading my flist. andpuff was the first on the list, but she's not the only one to have posted about it.

Apparently Amazon is stripping the sales ranks from books with gay romance in, on the grounds that it's adult material. Regardless of just how explicit the content is, or how explicit the straight romance books are.

This may be a case of a stupid code-goof and/or customer service not accurately replying to a query. I've had plenty of experience with customer service not answering the question I put to them, as if they hadn't actually read it, but just run a keyword search on it and hauled out the form response that seemed most likely to fit.

But if it's not, then Amazon needs to straighten up and fly right. (You can decide if that's a pun or not.)

Here is the post that I think originated it: http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html

And here's an lj with some explanation of what's going on, where you can find further links, and an explanation of why sales rank matters. http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/ meta_writer

ETA: There's an interesting theory at http://tehdely.livejournal.com/88823.html that the problem originated in an individual or a group going around Amazon and tagging things as adult. And that Amazon's system relied on those tags enough to remove the sales rank/searchability of those books in an automatic way.

Interesting theory, quite possibly true, and really really stupid of Amazon. It's still a fail for Amazon because 1) their system is too trusting of a few tags/complaints, 2) the customer service people didn't reply well, 3) their PR people claiming it's an unspecified 'glitch' is inadequate and lame.

If that is what happened, they should tell everyone, and then they should fix their system so it can't be exploited this way again.

By now, I am quite annoyed by how many Stephen King books Amazon is recommending to me based on The Living Dead, since it thinks Stephen King wrote the whole thing.

I discovered that Amazon lets you 'update product info', which is basically to make suggestions to fix their errors. I did this successfully for a Bujold audiobook where they had her name broken up oddly and the reader/narrator listed as a co-author.

I tried it for The Living Dead. All I was suggesting was that they list JJA first and Stephen King last. (It was easier to just swap their positions than to move everyone down one.) I even provided an URL to the publisher as reference.

But it came back today:

Action: None. We could not verify the requested update.

You couldn't verify it? I gave you an URL! You have a product image! Look at the freaking cover of the book!

Grrrr.

Maybe if several people suggest the change, they'll fix it eventually. But I just wonder if they think they'll sell more books if Stephen King is listed first. And, well, if it does sell more books, then I'm all for that.

(I do have my copy now. Haven't read it yet. I'm sure it's excellent though. You should all get it! Just maybe tell Amazon to ignore it as far as recommendations go, unless you like Stephen King books.)