While I was enjoying a relatively quite Easter weekend, the intranets were on fire with hatred over Amazon’s apparent new sales ranking policy. Basically, the policy is to censor ‘adult’ oriented fiction – the kicker is that it appears to be defined in a way to include anything sympathetic to GLBT characters, anything that addressed homophobia, many feminist books, and whole bunch of others. It’s early and people are (rightly) upset. Here are some links to catch you up:
I’m sure I could go on and on with links, but those are a few of the interesting links I’ve found this morning. As for me, I’m waiting for a while to see how things shake out. If this turns out to be true and Amazon doesn’t do a complete about face with heartfelt apologies, then I’ll have to act. I’ll take down all my Amazon links and spend loads of time going through and deleting the hundreds of Amazon Associate links on this blog. I just can’t support an organization that has this sort of policy – it’s wrong in so many ways.
Of course I’m not sure what I’ll replace things with, but Cheryl Morgan points to Indiebound which may have an answer.
EDIT: Cheryl Morgan points to an update from the Wall Street Journal and a statement from GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Whether or not you believe Amazon's statements that it was all a mistake, it does appear that they are going to make the situation right. I'm relieved and I suspect that this will be forgotten before too long.