The gist of the matter is this. Amazon has labeled some books "adult" and has removed the sales rankings of this "adult content". Sales rankings determine what books pop up on top when someone is searching for a topic. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will often start out with a very general search term (like say, "feminism") to find what's out there on a topic. Well, now, these "adult content" books won't be popping up.
So, what's this "adult content"?
Oh you know, books like this:
James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain
Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
Leslie Feinberg Transgender Warriors
Leslie Feinberg Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue
George Bennett Fain, Pandora's Box
Julia Serano, Whipping Girl
Dan Savage
The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students
Robert Adrich, Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History
Dr. Nathaniel Frank, Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America
Kate Bornstein My Gender Workbook
The Dictionary of Homophobia
Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
The Transgender Studies Reader (YAH HAI THIS IS A TEXTBOOK, one I had to buy!)
Yes Means Yes
Heather Has Two Mommies
Special, right?
Big thanks to Caroline at Uncooler Than Thou and A Very Elegant Mess.
Amazon is, of course, now saying that this was a "glitch". Yes well, to that I say #glitchmyass and I'm not even on Twitter. :P
UPDATE: Powell's Books Twitter
@zentinal A GLBT sale sounds like a great idea to me. I will check to see if this is something we can get going #amazonfail
Nice.
UPDATE: Jason at The Wild Hunt shares:
It’s obvious that Amazon will be backtracking under the glare of bad press and Internet groundswell, but while the “glitch” remains I wanted to see if it affected any books aimed at Pagans. Sure enough, “Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe” by Christopher Penczak, Jennifer Hunter’s “Rites of Pleasure: Sexuality in Wicca and Neo-Paganism”, LaSara Firefox’s “Sexy Witch”, Vicki Noble’s “The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power”, and “Lesbian Rites: Symbolic Acts and the Power of Community”, edited by Ramona Faith Oswald (and featuring contributions from Ruth Barrett and other Goddess-worshiping women) are all, at the time of this writing, without an Amazon sales ranking. No doubt there are even more that are escaping my notice (you can find a running list of de-ranked titles here).
*Officially even more pissed* On the upside I found what looks to be a much more worthy online bookstore to patronize! Better World Books.
