Epic FAIL.

[megwrites]

Amazon.com just royally fucked up. They're stripping the ranks from books with erotic or GLBT content. Of course, any GLBT content, however innocuous is dangerous and must be censored.

Because a book about dogfighting, or Playboy Playmates is fine. A book written by Adolf fucking Hitler is fine.

But a book that contains material about two people in a healthy, happy relationship if they happen to have the same the genitals, now that has to be kept away from the public. We can't let people search for them. We can't help those books get sales. Because it might offend our customers.

Well, this customer already is offended. This bisexual customer who once loved Amazon is now very offended. I am no longer comfortable doing business with Amazon, or with anyone who does business with them. This kind of blatant homophobia is unacceptable.

I urge you to boycott Amazon.com until they reverse this policy and issue a formal apology to the authors and the public. I know that I certainly will not be purchasing anything from them or through them until then.

If you need your online book fix, I recommend sites like: Barnes & Noble.com, AbeBooks.com, Alibris.com.

I used to work for a used bookseller, and I can say that Abe and Alibris are good places to surf, and I've bought from them. And guess what? They don't censor what you can find!

I also encourage you to petition or to tell Amazon.com directly that they've lost your business and will not be getting it back until such a time as they can act responsibly and respectfully.

Also, this may be the most accurate summation of this situation and the funniest. You can always rely on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Have you seen suricattus' entry where she says Amazon suddenly claims it was a screw-up in their ranking system and says it's in the process of being fixed, that they don't really have an "adult" policy?

Looks like all the screaming did some good, perhaps?

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope people keep screaming until it's all reversed. I have no idea why Amazon.com did something this stupid.

[denoue-moi.livejournal.com]

wow. fffffff you, amazon!

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

INORITE?!

[jenniferwillow.livejournal.com]

You see this? Total bs

http://consumerist.com/5210378/amazon-gay-book-removal-was-massive-prank-i-did-it-claims-troll

Hey there

[jenniferwillow.livejournal.com]

So just out of curiosity, if you get published, are you going to boycott your own book if it gets available on Amazon?

/You know, assuming it gets listed there but just not available by a search....

Re: Hey there

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

1) Should my novel ever become available (your mouth to God's ears), it will be a couple of years down the road. Most books you read (save a few big name examples and some types of nonfiction) were written years before publication, revised, edited, submitted to agents, then editors, and re-edited, and put into production and it's a big long process. Chances are that Amazon.com will have done a complete 180 before I even hear back from the agents I submitted to.

2) If they haven't, I won't have to boycott my own book, seeing as how it would fall under Amazon's "restrictions" in the first place. I'll just tell people to buy it elsewhere. From stores, or from other websites. Sales are sales, yo.

3) I won't be able to control if it gets listed on Amazon, because that will be the publisher's decision.

4) My decision to stop using Amazon.com until they reverse their policy is personal. And I don't consider anyone who uses Amazon.com to be a "traitor" or anything. To each their own, you know. It skeeves me to see GLBT content censored, and skeeves me enough to quit using Amazon. If someone else is comfortable with it, that's fine. I don't think less of them.