You are here: Home » Entertainment » Books » What’s Going on With Amazon?

What’s Going on With Amazon?

Posted by: ~Julie Phineas~ on April 17, 2009.

A story that I have been following closely lately is that of online retail book giant Amazon.com who removed sales rankings for gay and lesbian books on their site last week.

Author and blogger Mark R. Probst posted an article about the glitch after discovering that hundreds of gay and lesbian books had lost their sales ranking, including his own book, a gay romance titled The Filly.

The widespread internet news coverage to follow prompted quick reaction by Amazon.com which fixed the problem within a few days.

Initially, in an email to Probst, an Amazon representative told him that the books were de-ranked because they were deemed to be “adult” material. The official statement of apology by the wesbite instead claimed that a glitch was the cause of the error, an “embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error” that pertained to 57,310 listings. They also say that it was misreported that the issue was limited to gay and lesbian themed books. Some people aren’t buyin’ it.

The event has coined a new term, already in heavy rotation on Twitter and the blogosphere: AmazonFail.