Amazon: So dumb, it could be a financial services firm!

So I know I said this would be a financial services-themed blog, but Amazon blew that out of the water when, two days ago, it removed sales rankings from a whole passel – and by “whole passel” we’re talking HUNDREDS -- of books with gay and lesbian themes. Quick and dirty explanation: searchability on Amazon is determined by sales ranking. If you don’t have a rank, you can’t be found.* It’s Blacklist, Capitalist Style.

A couple of things:

1) Please note I said, “gay and lesbian themes.” What I didn’t say is “gay and lesbian content.” In a response to Mark Probst, a Young Adult fiction author who wrote to ask why his book The Filly was deranked, Amazon claimed that:

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.


Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.


Best regards,


Ashlyn D

Member Services

Amazon.com Advantage


Mark’s LiveJournal post earlier today has the dirt, straight from the horse’s mouth.

You might think I’m quibbling between “themes” and “content,” but think again: deranked books include the fabulously sexy The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students (because the only thing scarier than gay people is EDUCATED gay people) and Nathaniel Frank’s Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America. But really, who DOESN’T get all lathered up by the military?:



Clearly, this is not about too-hot-to-handle content. There have apparently been some straight-themed books whose ranks were stripped (so to speak), but this is still listed. And for the record, so is this. So this is pure, unadulterated (no pun intended) homophobia. If you have any doubt, the very helpful Meta Writer is aggregating delisted book information here.


2) In light of all this, a new phrase has entered the lexicon. Spread the Word!


3) Fun Fact!: Spread the Word was the original tag line for this – which, clearly, you can still find on Amazon.

And by the way? The above links are the last times I'm ever linking to Amazon. Ahhhh -- that felt so good, it might just get me delisted.


*To clarify: you won't pop up in general searches. If you don't have a sales rank you can be found only by having someone search specifically for you or your title.