Home
 
Previous | Memories | Tell a Friend | Next
 
c_smith_author
c_smith_author
12 April 2009 @ 01:06 pm
IMPORTANT  
IMPORTANT


If you write books with homosexual characters, read books with homosexual characters, please look at this:



Mark, Erastes, and Alex (among others) had their Amazon sales rankings removed over the last few days for The Filly, Transgressions and False Colours respectively. On enquiring about this, Mark was told the following:

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


Please note that just before this, Erastes' Transgressions and Alex's False Colours were topping out the rankings. Also note that "The Filly" is a YA Books, and therefore I would suggest one of the more important books to have out there for kids questioning their identity, and Transgressions and False Colours are being shelved with the Romance section of Barnes and Noble. Though as Mark points out, that is of no fucking importance because this is homophobic bias pure and simple.

I have no idea what to do about this except spread the message. If anyone has any ideas on what to do, tell me. Because I am not letting this lie. As vashtan said, they are happy to take the money, but not happy to give these books the recognition they rightly deserve.

Chris.

PS. Not linking to these books on Amazon, for obvious reasons. If people would give me other sites on which to buy them, will amend the post.

ETA: Letter to Amazon here: http://c-smith-author.livejournal.com/20968.html
 
15 comments | Leave a comment
 
( 15 comments — Post a new comment )
Steve[info]mroctober on April 12th, 2009 02:45 pm (UTC)
Sigh.
c_smith_author[info]c_smith_author on April 12th, 2009 03:10 pm (UTC)
Yeah. Saw what you said on Mark's LJ - I hope it will raise the profile of GLBT fiction. More sales?

Also, good shout on picking up Whispers in the Dark, read it yesterday for cheering up after horrendous (used in the most literal sense) family news. Brilliant book.
蛍雪時代~ 蛍雪常世: lesbian fingersmith undeniable[info]nicocoer on April 12th, 2009 04:12 pm (UTC)
The Filly: B&N | Borders does not seem to carry this title | books.google | Indie Bound

Transgressions: B&N | Borders | books.google.com | Indie Bound

False Colors: B&N | Borders | ooks.google | Indie Bound

If their goal was to hide this stuff away, they have failed as I had never heard of False Colors and now feel I MUST read it. :)

A note on The Filly and Borders: Google registers them as having had the title available at the price of $15.99, and offers a link that deadends, and a search on their site does not bring it up. I am guessing that someone requested that they remove the title from their listings. D:

Now I'm off to have Sunday Dinner (for easter) with my Lesbian grandmothers and their family. I'll have to tell them about this whole thing. deplorable.
c_smith_author[info]c_smith_author on April 12th, 2009 04:38 pm (UTC)
Thank you very very much - will update posts :)
Stephanie[info]pandorabox82 on April 13th, 2009 01:46 am (UTC)
I'm not surprised about the Borders link deadending, since they partner with Amazon for their online orders.
JoSelle[info]upstart_crow on April 12th, 2009 07:56 pm (UTC)
Great. I wonder if they're going to pull this crap on me when Lethe re-releases my lesbian fairy tale anthology.

I have a hard enough time selling books without having my sales rankings yanked!
c_smith_author[info]c_smith_author on April 12th, 2009 08:02 pm (UTC)
As I said to steve (also, lesbian fairytales! How cool is that!!!) I hope it brings your books to the forefront. It is definitely spreading like wildfire.
JoSelle[info]upstart_crow on April 12th, 2009 08:05 pm (UTC)
(Why thank you! The book is called Sleeping Beauty, Indeed if you're curious!)

I hope it does, too. Today's a religious holiday for me, and I prefer to spend it in contemplation and peace, but come Monday I will be giving Amazon hell for this. They already dicked me around earlier this year with an e-book copy of the same anthology that was up for 8 months on the site without me or Torquere seeing a dime, so I'm really not happy with them right now.
c_smith_author[info]c_smith_author on April 12th, 2009 08:09 pm (UTC)
Yeah, I'm a roman catholic, so same for me too. This kind of all started with some extremely bad family news, and when I saw Mark's post, I just kind of went mad. Gave me a focus for all my anger.

Sheesh. They are... special is a good word. Ah, amazon, you know not what you do.
JoSelle[info]upstart_crow on April 12th, 2009 08:11 pm (UTC)
Awesome! I am also Catholic and gay (I'm making a huge assumption here, so please correct me if I'm wrong). :)
c_smith_author[info]c_smith_author on April 12th, 2009 08:15 pm (UTC)
I'm catholic (Jesuit educated so pretty much as heretical as you can get) and bisexual female who lives with a man. So yes, I can pass. And I tend too, especially since I am in the construction industry. Just safer when there are blokes with spanners and welding torches about.

Yes, this probably makes me a bad person on some level.


JoSelle[info]upstart_crow on April 12th, 2009 08:07 pm (UTC)
Oh I also friended you! I want to stay in touch with all the GLBTQ writers on LJ :)

In fact, I wonder -- is there any LJ-based community or LJ post or us to find each other? If we had something like that, maybe news could get out even faster when crap like this happens again.

Not that the system we have now isn't working, but I'd like to think that we could raise even more awareness.
c_smith_author[info]c_smith_author on April 12th, 2009 08:12 pm (UTC)
Oh sheesh, if you want that go poke erastes with a stick. She's the doyenne of GLBT writing links.

There are several, try erotic_authors, for starters, then there is Speak Its Name, and the Macaronis...

I'm mainly into gay historical, well, because that is what the only book I've written is about really.

And new friends are good, though you may be bored to death as editing at the moment!
violent pacifist[info]danbi on April 13th, 2009 01:08 am (UTC)
Thanks for updating about this, man.
c_smith_author[info]c_smith_author on April 13th, 2009 08:02 am (UTC)
Most welcome.