This is unbelievable! Amazon has been stripping various books of their sales ranking because of their adult content. Novels from Larissa Ione, Maya Banks and Jaci Burton are no longer popping up in Amazon searches, because without these rankings, the searches don’t include them. Well, in their glorious wisdom, Smart Bitches, Trashy Romance is fighting back and has termed a new phrase to protest their displeasure to Amazon. The new word is Amazon Rank and they are trying to google bomb them to get their point across. So what is Amazon Rank you ask, let me show you. The Smart Bitches are asking everyone to link to this term as a show of protest to Amazon’s Rank stripping and I’m joining the protest.
Slight Update: I know it hasn’t been that long since I posted, but Lilith Saintcrow had some more information on this Amazon craziness. Meta Writer has a list of affected writers and Dear Author has updates as well.
And as of 2 hours ago (according to the Google search time), the Smart Bitches Amazon Rank is holding the #1 place in my search query.
And I found more info: The Seattle PI has an article on the massive fail that Amazon is responsible for at the moment. They also include a bunch more links to other cites regarding the Amazon Rank policy.
Also, there is a petition going around for people who are wholly against this new Amazon Rank policy (I wonder how many more times I can say it in here). If you want to sign it, you can find it at thepetitionsite.com. The petition has over 2000 signatures the last time I looked at it.
More Author Linkage: Lauren Dane, who does write some fabulous erotic romance novels, adds her two cents to the Amazon Rank issue. And guess what….Dane’s new novel Relentless has also been stripped of its ranking.
Update: You know it’s bad when you get the nerds & geeks upset. The new Amazon Rank policy has even hit Slashdot. This will also ensure some hilarious comments from many of the Slashdot geek, so if you’re looking for time to spare, you might want to head over.
More linkage: The LA Times has also run an article on the new Amazon Rank policy.
Sadly, I feel like I’m out of the loop on this already. I’ve heard some people who have said they haven’t noticed a change at Amazon. Does this mean that they have rethought their policy or is it more subtle than that?
I do know, that if Amazon is going to continue with their Amazon Rank policy, I’m going to have to seriously rethink being a member of their Associates program. Literary Escapism may have started out as a place for me to review books without flooding my own blog, but it has differently evolved into a site that promotes authors in any capacity I can. And I’m not sure I can be associated with a company who isn’t willing to do the same.
A few more linkage: Bookspot Central has also brought the Amazon Rank topic up.
Larissa Ione was one of the authors affected and she gives us her take.
Maya Banks, another affected writer, chimes in.
Dear Author has added an update along with contact information for an Amazon executive plus a good template to email them.
Stephanie Tyler is also not an amused reader/writer and is thinking about revoking her Associate status as well.
Booksquare has their own “open letter to amazon” and has some really good updates on it.
Publishing Talk has their own open letter to Jeff Bezos.
Wet Asphalt has a list of books proving it’s not adult content that gets you deranked.
Have you seen the Twit searches for #amazonfail yet? It’s quite a list. I can’t see how this hasn’t turned into a PR nightmare yet.
Overland brings about a very good question – do I really want to buy a Kindle when the company may not sell the books I want? Amazon wants their Kindle to be the new standard for ebooks, but if they are already censoring what I like to read and potentially not selling it, why would I want a Kindle?
Publisher’s Weekly has an article stating that the Amazon Rank policy is not a glitch, but I haven’t been able to get it. The server keeps crashing, but Lilith Saintcrow has saved the day and posted the article. And her comments are pretty good too. Definitely check out her post.
Lisy Babe has also noticed that books involving a disability has also been stripped of their rank.
Tehdely also has a theory regarding this new Amazon Rank policy.
Jackie, thanks for all the links. You are awesome as always with collecting cites and references.