Amazon petition

[rm]

The list of books involved is now really long.

It seems it's happening based on key words and search terms. Stuff we now know to have been hit with this includes a bunch of YA books, Jacqueline Carey's books, a number of biographies and autobiographies (including John Barrowman's), a range of self-help books, and even books from both conservative and liberal perspectives that address the topic of homosexuality in terms of the Bible.


petition: http://tinyurl.com/d5dbo3

other means of contact:
Jeffrey Bezos, CEO
AMAZON.COM
1200 12th Avenue South
Seattle, Washington 98144-2734
United States
Phone: 206-266-1000
Fax: 206-622-2405

Comments

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

I can personally attest to being affected by this bigoted Amazon online crap. If you search for my author name or Ancestral Magic under “all departments” neither appears to exist. You have to look only under “books” to find it. By making it harder to found LGBT authors and thier books, it effect our sales. People assume the book or we don’t exist.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Someone twittered Stephen Fry to tell him the sales rank on his biography had gone AWOL, too.

My head's still hurting from this level of stupidity.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Beautiful.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I know. I'm desperate to see how he's going to respond.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

OOOOOO. Now that will put Twitter's nose out of joint! @stephenfry's one of the biggest names in Twitter, and if the response to that bit of news is anything like what it was on copperbadge's flist...

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I know. You don't mess with Stephen Fry. :D

[rm.livejournal.com]

He is my favorite sorrowful queer. Seriously. Like, I'm completely fascinated by these roles he always winds up playing -- Wilde, his role in V for Vendetta. I love so much of his work of all types, but that in particular always strikes me, the sorrow in the parts he does.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I heart him so much. Wilde is one of my favourite movies (I honestly can't think of anyone who could play Wilde better) and I felt like I'd been sucker-punched during V for Vendetta.

I secretly still hope he'll have a cameo in House. It would possibly make my decade. (I hoped the same thing when Fry played Booth's therapist in Season 2 of Bones. *coughs*)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I secretly still hope he'll have a cameo in House.

That would be EXCELLENT. (And I'm sure Fry *and* Laurie would get a kick out of it.)

[kshandra]

Yeah, @stephenfry and @neilhimself have BOTH picked this up.

This is gonna get interesting (in that "oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die" sense) really quick.

[rm.livejournal.com]

And I've reported the whole thing to GLAAD.

This is going to blow up on Amazon. And they have to, as far as I am concerned, do more than fix it. Public apology and donations to some sort of GBLTQ or freedom of speech group.

[lanning.livejournal.com]

This. Absolutely.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

My Gods, is this whole thing going to happen on Easter Sunday?
Oods bless you little Internet.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Gods, not Oods.
(Well, it's not exactly a Freudian slip...)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Pfui. Reminds me of how LJ strategically deleted "objectionable" interests from its "Popular Interests" page - via similarly clumsy means. I look forward to a retraction, because *really*.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I just wrote to Andrew Sullivan, giving him the heads-up that two of his books have been de-ranked. Sully is *really* high-profile.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh yes!

[lanning.livejournal.com]

This is horrific! The list just keeps getting longer and longer. I've logged into my Amazon account and sent my protest email -- I think their mail boxes must be pretty damn full by now. *eg* I've also heard that Neil Gaiman has twittered angrily about this, which should get the matter some attention. Here's hoping the adverse publicity has an effect.

from Gaiman's Twitters...

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

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

[girlingoldboots.livejournal.com]

WTF?

And they thought this was going to help their business how? I haven't bought anything off of them in *years* but petition is signed, and e-mail has been sent.

Did they think this was going to go un-noticed?

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Yes. They thought that.
The implications of the 21st century still haven't sunk in yet.

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

Can I (continue) to cut/paste to my journal instead of linking? There isn't much overlap in our friends lists.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yup, feel free.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Signed the protest. Good gods, what bigotry.

If I should happen to profit from my used books this week on Amazon, the money's going to deserving LGBTQ authors -- I've been wanting to read a few of my friends' novels, after all...

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

http://twitpic.com/38g97/full the new search on Amazon for 'homosexuality'.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

I can't believe this... this is like some stupid time warp to the '50's or something...

I've sent in email to Amazon...they damn well better pay attention if many of their long time customers protest as well...

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

I also sent a letter to Rachel Maddow. The very out reporter on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. I hope she takes the story.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. You know, I should drop one to Keith Olbermann who has engaged the gay marriage thing with a rather unique passion (as the guy who doesn't, as he says, have a horse in the race).

[requiella]

that list is insane! They've targeted everything from EM Forster to a teen self-help book that a friend of mine, who works with foster children, always lends out or gives her copys away.

I'm emailing her and hopefully she will email others in her industry.

[weirdodragoncat.livejournal.com]

This is totally ridiculous. It may be a while before I buy anything from them again. They need to fix this like...yesterday.

Petition signed

[riverrocks.livejournal.com]

My concern with this petition is that the language used doesn't include the trans and bi books impacted by this new policy (and there are many on the lists you linked too, most of them non-fiction). I am outraged by the situation and want to do my part with pitching in for change, but I don't feel comfortable signing a petition that doesn't speak to the full scope of the problem.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

I wrote to Amazon.com's Customer Service via their site. This is the reply I got back:

From: Amazon.com Customer Service (cust.service03@amazon.com)
Sent: Mon 4/13/09 1:28 AM
To: holkimcardie1@hotmail.com (holkimcardie1@hotmail.com)

Hello, Thanks for contacting us. We recently discovered a glitch in our systems and it's being fixed.

Thanks again for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question: If yes, click here: http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=achwyeyf3477416745

If not, click here: http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=achwyeyf3477416745

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our web site. Best regards, Syed ArifAmazon.comWe're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Companyhttp://www.amazon.com/your-account

---- Original message: ---- ---------------04/12/09 17:49:39Your Name:Holly K WilsonComments:

From friends, I have recently learned about the new Amazon policy of removing any book with gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered characters from the rankings, *even if those books are NOT adult material*.

There are are number of books involved that have gay characters that are aimed at young adults, so there have no sex. Others that have gay or transgendered character for adults that have no sex, just happen to have characters that are gay or transgendered. Yet they were unranked in this censorship. One of the authors are were unranked is a friend of mine, Alyx J. Shaw. She has three books that I can't even find anymore. And I wanted to buy them.

This is both extreme censorship and discrimination. And to have pulled this around a holiday weekend when you think no one would be paying attention is wrong. Some of the books you unranked and hide away were bestsellers! They were making you money! And the other books will never have a chance if one can't find them. I'd say it's not very smart of a bookseller to carry books that will sell and yet hide them so people can't find them. You don't make money that way and you tick off a lot of people who would buy those books and more.

Until Amazon.com changes this horrid, bigoted policy and returns the books to their rankings, I will not spend any money with you.


A "glitch in our systems"??? Oh, really???