Amazon de-ranks so-called adult books, including National Book Award winner

One of these books has been removed from Amazon's sales rankings because of "adult" content; the other has not.

"American Psycho" is Bret Easton Ellis' story of a sadistic murderer. "Unfriendly Fire" is a well-reviewed empirical analysis of military policy. But it's "Unfriendly Fire" that does not have a sales rank -- which means it would not show up in Amazon's bestseller lists, even if it sold more copies than the "Twilight" series. In some cases, being de-ranked also means being removed from Amazon's search results.

Amazon's policy of removing "adult" content from its rankings seems to be both new and unevenly implemented. On Saturday, self-published author Mark R. Probst noticed that his book had lost its ranking, and made inquiries. The response he got from Amazon's customer service explained:

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.

Probst wrote a novel for young adults with gay characters set in the old West; he was concerned that gay-friendly books were being unfairly targeted. Amazon has not responded to the L.A. Times request for clarification.

Our research shows that these books have lost their ranking: "Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs, "Rubyfruit Jungle" by Rita Mae Brown, "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel, "The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1" by Michel Foucault, "Bastard Out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison (2005 Plume edition), "Little Birds: Erotica" by Anais Nin, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-Dominque Bauby (1997 Knopf edition), "Maurice" by E.M. Forster (2005 W.W. Norton edition) and "Becoming a Man" by Paul Monette, which won the 1992 National Book Award.

Books that remain ranked include: "Naked" by David Sedaris, "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller, "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis, "Wifey" by Judy Blume, "The Kiss" by Kathryn Harrison, the photobooks "Playboy: Helmut Newton" and "Playboy: Six Decades of Centerfolds," "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs, "Incest: From 'A Journal of Love'" by Anais Nin, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-Dominque Bauby (2007 Vintage International edition), "Maurice" by E.M. Forster (2005 Penguin Classics edition).

Certainly many of the books that are no longer ranked are no more "adult" than many of those that are -- as the list above shows, the same book, by different publishers, might meet either fate. And Kindle editions of some books remain ranked. "Unfriendly Fire," for example, is #1 in Gay and Lesbian Nonfiction on the Kindle -- even as the hardcover of the book, which was released on March 3, does not show up at all when searched for.

When book critic Bethanne Patrick came across the news, she posted in on Twitter, where it circulated rapidly. Sunday afternoon it took just an hour for the hashtag #amazonfail to become the top trending topic on the site. An online petition was created. A site run by romance writers started an effort to redefine the phrase "Amazon rank" as "To censor and exclude on the basis of adult content in literature (except for Playboy, Penthouse, dogfighting and graphic novels depicting incest orgies)."

But as troubling as the unevenness of the policy of un-ranking and de-searching certain titles might be, it's a bit beside the point. It's the action itself that is troubling: making books harder to find, or keeping them off bestseller lists on the basis of their content can't be a good idea.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Comments

[Craig Seymour]

I've been complaining about this since February: http://craigspoplife.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-amazon-homophobic.html

[jonquil]

Thank you. Other people following this story have noticed that books on preventing suicide in gay teens (Dead Boys Can't Dance: Sexual Orientation, Masculinity, and Suicide) were de-ranked, while "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" and "Does God Love Michael's Two Daddies?" sail through just fine.

[Joe Decker]

I gave their customer service line a call at 800-201-7575.

[Rhonda]

I think you made a typo. You have the Forester book and the Bauby book on both lists.

[Ann]

Amazon will not get a single penny more from me until they change this policy.

[Lawrence Schimel]

Because the titles don't show up in the search engines, now if you type "homosexuality" into the Amazon.com search engine the first book that comes up is A PARENT'S GUIDE TO PREVENTING HOMOSEXUALITY.

[Alexa]

I agree with Joe. I sent them an e-mail a short time ago and let them know that, although I've spent over $5K at Amazon in the past 5 years, I will not be spending another cent until they stop this ridiculous practice and explain what was behind it.

[Ted Striphas]

Clearly Amazon does not understand the degree to which a free and open book business is vital to maintaining free and open expression in society.

[Bill Peschel]

It looks like James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room" lost its sales ranking, while "Go Tell It To The Mountain" was not.

[Jack gordon]

Is there any evidence, other than the single quote from the unnamed customer service rep, that this is the result of a new policy and not a glitch? This is not the first time that the book rankings have gone wonky on Amazon. There is every indication for anyone who takes the trouble to look that this is not a new policy, and simply a database error. One can't expect the frothing masses on twitter to think before making these claims, but one would expect a purported journalist (even a lowly blogger) to try and get some facts before confirming the wild conjecture.

[Jason Puckett]

As a long-time Amazon customer, I registered my complaint with them and won't be purchasing anything until this homophobic policy is changed.

[Carolyn]

Actually, Rhonda, those books do appear on both lists -- in each case, one edition has lost its ranking, while another has not.

[Juliet]

I've just emailed them requesting the deletion of my account.

[layne]

I also called the customer service line and registered my complaint. I recently bought a Kindle, but after learning of this practice, will no longer purchase content from amazon. I'm also a frequent purchaser of their Video On Demand service, but will undergo a complete boycott until this practice is changed.

[Shannon]

@Rhonda - it's not a typo, it's pointing out different editions of books are, puzzlingly, receiving inconsistent treatment.

[Kirsten]

To Jack Gordon:

http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html has a named csr who states it is their policy.

[Carolyn]

Jack, thanks for your comment. You'll be interested to read Craig Seymour's documentation of his troubled with Amazon de-listing his book for "adult" content (see the link above). Craig is a journalist who has a PhD; his book is "All I Could Bare: My Life in the Gay Strip Clubs of Washington, DC." On his blog, he writes: "the only books I could find without a 'sales rank' had gay content like mine. For instance, my gay stripper memoir had no sales ranking, but Diablo Cody's stripper memoir, 'Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper,' did."

report of "adult" content being de-ranked and removed from search engines has been documented, as

[Emmy]

@ Jack: An Amazon glitch that deranks only GLBT books and none other? Seriously? This wasn't a random deranking of a few titles, it was specifically targeted at an entire genre. Did YOU do any research before you posted?

[susanthehuman]

Wow, this is more than troubling. It looks as if I will be spending more time at Barnes and Noble which has no such policy. Unfortunately, I already have a Kindle...this sort of censorship will likely derail the Kindle's expansion. People won't invest in the device if they can't trust that Amazon is trying to make everything available.

Seriously, if they remove the books from the search, they are essentially not selling them anymore.

[tod goldberg]

Here are two LA-centric titles of note that have been de-ranked:
Gay LA by Lillian Faderman
City of Night by John Rechy

[carlo]

Give them a call or sent an email and let them know how you feel about this...

1-800-201-7575

or

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/reports/contact-us

[Gina]

The children's book "Heather Has Two Mommies" has also been de-ranked. The product information still says Reading level: Ages 4-8. Adult content? Really? FAIL.

[Minal Hajratwala]

My book about my family and the Indian diaspora was de-ranked, even though it -- like many others tagged "Gay & Lesbian" -- has zero explicit sexual content.

It's not just the rankings but the loss of categories, which means that you can no longer get to my book from another, similar book. If you’re looking at, say, Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, and you click on > History > Asia > India to find similar books, you won’t find mine... it's been disappeared. Gayness, it seems, trumps all other categories.

I've listed things people can do to protest here:
http://www.minalhajratwala.com/blog

[B. Rodriguez]

This is outrageous to me, why dont they de-rank some books on evolution too.

[Shelli Stevens]

Thank you for blogging this! I'm an author of erotic romance novels and this has also effected me as well as many of my friends. I've also signed the petition.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy