#amazonfail

[briarwood]

And by now most of my flist have already heard about the news. For those who haven't, the Amazon ranking system has been changed to exclude authors of LGBTTQ-related materials from searches and sales rankings. In spite of their totaly bogus claim that this is a technical glitch evidence has emerged that this discriminatory practice has been going on since February.

Amazon's moronic response to a query from author Mark Probst claimed:

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.

Let's be clear. By "Adult" they mean pornography. And to judge by my own Amazon recommendations, it means hardcore, exploitative and dangerous pornography. Yeah.

So Brokeback Mountain is hardcore porn, but Laurell K Hamilton's abusive-relationships-as-romance are fine for all ages? A book designed to save the lives of suicidal teenagers, or a children's book about a child raised by two lesbians are hardcore porn, but it's fine to continue promoting Watchmen, in which a woman is slaughtered for the crime of being a lesbian, and one of the heroes is a murdering misogynist rapist?

I'm so there. Not.

For what it's worth, I have cancelled all of my outstanding orders at Amazon (which, ironically, included Sarah Waters' new novel out in June) and I have told them why.

There are plenty of other places I can shop. So I will.