'Gay writing' falls foul of Amazon sales ranking system

Apparently some of the inconsistencies have to do with the categories books are listed under. So for instance, the same book might be unranked because it's categorized as 'adult', but another version of the same book is ranked because it's categorized as 'memoir' (example from the article). Oh, and the Playboy stuff was still ranked because it was listed under 'photography'. Oy.

Very bizarre, and they're taking lots of heat. Go team! Whatever their real reasons for doing what they did, they did it very poorly.

That, on top of the way they punish self-publishers who don't use their software/printing system, makes me very glad I mostly order from other places. And now, I'll be working even harder to not order from them.... I think I'm down to once or twice a year, when I can't find something at my usual places. Shouldn't be impossible to make that zero.

Via herveus:

...specifically, they seem to have deemed a whole mess of books with LGBT content to be "adult" and thus not worthy of bearing an Amazon Ranking...

http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html says it with details and specifics.

Let the torches and pitchforks be gathered. This is one more reason I'm not in any rush to buy from Amazon.


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From me: Why yes, I try not to buy from them either, unless I can't get what I want from somewhere else. And, I've written to them to ask why they've marked LGBT content as "adult" and stripped all such products of ranking, but they haven't done that with PLAYBOY PRODUCTS.

Hello?

This is unacceptable. Please feel free to share your feelings with Amazon.

Was just made aware of this today, and am posting information from lupabitch and a writer friend of mine, who isn't personally affected by this, but knows of people/presses that would be.

In order to be more customer-friendly, Amazon is changing some of their rules. These rules supposedly don't affect the customer except in a positive way. BUT --

Succinct list and comments from lupabitch:
--Amazon wants all their POD books to be printed by their own in-house printers

** This means that publishers who use other POD (print-on-demand) presses would have to change over to Booksurge POD (which is owned by Amazon)** (helwen's comment)

--Booksurge printer is more expensive and Amazon keeps more of the profit

--Amazon/Booksurge's distribution sucks

--The Amazon Advantage program also sucks, since again it asks for a bigger chunk of the publisher's profits, enough that many publishers simply can't afford it

--POD books that aren't from their printers will lose sales, enough that some publishers may go out of business unless better alternatives are found

Their letter talks all about the convenience--for the CUSTOMER. It doesn't say a thing about the inconvenience for publishers. They're trying to placate customers into thinking this is all well and good because it benefits them--and customers may be less likely to speak up if they stand to lose their newly-found convenience just because a few little publishers get inconvenienced.

*** End list/comments from lupabitch ***

Apparently Booksurge requires a different format for the books than other PODs too, and the print quality isn't as good -- and yet, they cost more.

One way this affects the customer is that the quality of the books would go down, and I like a book that is readable and will last a good long while, myself. Also, if the smaller presses go away, small print-run authors may lose access because they may already be at the limit of what they can afford. Amazon either wants the other POD presses to sell the books (the elec. format) for Booksurge to print or send them some printed books to keep stocked in the warehouse.

Keeping stock in the warehouse means faster delivery for the customer, but more upfront cost for the small presses, with no guarantee that the books will be bought. In our dicey, changing economy, there simply isn't as much margin for loss as there use to be. For small businesses for that matter, there never is much margin.

So, another way this affects the customer is that some unique and special books may never see the light of day. And we're talking all sorts of books: science, fiction, spiritual books, historical research (I got a medieval cook book just last year that came off of Lulu), and more.

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Just doing my little part to stand up for independent press/thought!