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Is Amazon Really Anti-Gay?
Now, I’m hardly in favor of censorship, and I do appreciate the irony that, for example, a serious book like Andrew Sullivan’s Virtually Normal got de-listed, while Bret Easton Ellis’s sexually violent novel American Psycho did not. (Maybe this is what happens when you use a complicated algorithm, instead of basic humans, to search for so-called offensive words and themes.) And there’s no question that Amazon behaved ridiculously. But I suggest that the retailer’s biggest mistake was, as is usually the case in politically sensitive matters, in the flip-flopping.They’re a retailer, after all, and while many in BookLand would think it pretty to be otherwise, a retailer is under no obligation to sell every book that is published, or to arrange its bestseller lists in categories to suit the industry, or, for that matter, to give equal air time to every book. In fact, just as publishers are allowed to—supposed to—exert judgment over what they publish, so too are booksellers. One group edits what gets printed, the other edits what gets sold.
Yes, taking gay books—or any books—off the rankings list seriously limits how many will sell, but isn’t it up to the bookseller to decide what the market wants, what it will sell and how it will sell it? Moving certain books out of contention for bestseller lists doesn’t seem a whole lot different from moving them out of the display window or even, leaving them in cartons in the stockroom—all of which are legitimate sales techniques, assuming a bookseller hasn’t taken co-op dollars from a publisher and promised certain placement. After all, that’s just what B&N and some other stores said they’d do with O.J. Simpson’s “confession” a few years back; they agreed to make the book available to customers, but they wouldn’t shove it down their throats. Why is that OK—and why was it OK, even right, for some booksellers to balk at my suggestion, years ago, that they not stock Ann Coulter’s liberal-bashing books? Because booksellers are in a business, not a public-works project, and like all businesses, bookselling succeeds or fails on how well it gives the customers what they want.
Before Saturday, did the majority of bookbuying customers care whether gay-themed books were part of the general-book mix on Amazon.com? My guess is no—and that most Amazon shoppers had never even noticed if they were. But they know now, and, more important, they have now heard of books like The Filly and Transgressions and False Colors, books they might never have noticed on the rankings list. I don’t doubt that Mark Probst’s original post was full of genuine concern and outrage—but today he’s got something better: free publicity. Luckily, we can study the Amazon rankings to see just how well that publicity will pay off.
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Sara Nelson is the former editor in chief of Publishers Weekly and the author of the bestselling So Many Books, So Little Time.
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Sara Nelson is a critic for The Daily Beast and the former editor in chief of Publishers Weekly. She is the author of the bestselling So Many Books, So Little Time.
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Sara Nelson is a critic for The Daily Beast and the former editor in chief of Publishers Weekly. She is the author of the bestselling So Many Books, So Little Time.
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Sara Nelson is a critic for The Daily Beast and the former editor in chief of Publishers Weekly. She is the author of the bestselling So Many Books, So Little Time.
love it. oh the astronomical publicity for those books.
I heard that "The White Swallow" was Amazon's number one book until someone got all ooky about the title. True story.
What happened to fairness.
Publishing a major bestseller list surely comes with a certain responsibility. It's more than window display. What would we say if the New York Times bestseller list intentionally excluded books by women, for example? You argue that Amazon.com is "just" a retailer and has the right to dress its window as it chooses, but even a corner store has a certain public responsibility. I believe even Amazon.com would agree.
Sandra Gulland
ll me crazy, but I don't think it's right for Amazon to post a book's sales ranking unless the number is the book's, er, sales ranking.
If some books are stripped of their rankings, it implies others have their rankings boosted artificially, no?
Good point.
Sara this is a great perspective, but my view (and I think a lot of us in Bookland) do understand that a bookstore, even an online one, can move and shuffle books at will. The issue (at least for me) isn't that Amazon did this, it's that they think they can. While they may not have the lion's share of sales industry wide, they are pervasive. Amazon is everywhere. They are also publisher and now known for putting ebooks on the map.
Yes, retailers and e-tailers can move, shuffle, even exclude books if they want. But what makes me nervous is that when a company like Amazon is allowed to determine what we read or have access to, where does it stop? Boycotting a book like the OJ tome is one thing, excluding a market is another. Not the least of which is, where's the explanation? Where's the apology? Are they so big and powerful that they no longer need to address a customer concern?
Oh guys, this was a hack. How embarrassing.
http://community.livejournal.com/brutal_honesty/3168992.html
"...but isn't it up to the bookseller to decide what the market wants, what it will sell and how it will sell it?"
Actually, it *ISN'T* and I'm fed up with other others (publishing companies, Amazon, critics, and the like) dictating what I should and shouldn't read. While I may find books like MEIN KAMPF, IF I DID IT, books by Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh, etc., anything from distasteful to down right offensive, the last time I checked we still live in a country that guarantees every citizen the right to free speech. As a consumer in a free market economy, I would expect a company like Amazon to provide for those wants and needs without bias or gate-keeping of any variety.
Consumers drive demand, and booksellers respond---that was the lesson of this weekend. Was Amazon being anti-gay? Absolutely. And they got spanked hard. Their stock price even fell 2.1% Monday. And now I keep hearing from my friends that this, combined with Amazon's poor customer service rep, has them fleeing permanently---gay and straight customers alike. For a moment, the lights came on in Santa's Workshop over there and no one liked what they saw.
Also, Sara Nelson, the whole Twitterstorm about Amazon was that actually customers DID notice. So, your point about the general customer is wrong.
Your arguments are disengenuous on several levels, but here are the top 3:
1. Arguing strict legal rights/parameters is always the lowest common denominator in arguing right action. I am equally within my legal rights to join the Ku Klux Klan as I am to donate 10% of my income to educational programs for homeless children. That the two actions are equally legal does not, however, make them of equal ethical or social worth, nor entitled to equal reinforcement and support by society at large. That something is merely not illegal does not make it morally acceptable.
2. By your own logic, excluding certain titles--based not on popularity within the marketplace but on a different (and some might argue arbitrary) set of criteria--defeats your own logic that Amazon, like any other retailer, is seeking to best serve its consumers by providing them with the products they most want. If those products can't be ranked competitively, their desirability to consumers cannot be determined.
3. As for your equation of OJ Simpson's book with gay/feminist titles, please see my first argument above. While it may be true that the decision to exclude any book is technically equatable with a decision to exclude any other, there is certainly a vast ethical gulf between refusing to profit from a murder and disenfranchising entire groups of people based on sexual orientation. You cannot, I hope, seriously seek to equate the two morally?
Typical corporate bullpucky: blame a nonexistant hacker for cowardly homophobic policy. It's going to cost them because we "adults" buy lots of books...but not from Amazon anymore. I'll buy my books from gay-friendly retailers. Amazon...don't you guys realize that your very name is a little...gay?
If you are not a homophile in today's climate you are objectively homophobic.
Gimme a break, what ever the reason who cares?
There are plenty of other book retailers to buy from, so move on and buy from them!
A decline in sales might show the Amazon giant!
The point is that I don't need or want Amazon or anyone else telling me what is appropriate to read - gay or not! That is called censorship & it is total bs! A lot of people believe in different things and all should be available if you want to read them. That simply comes down to free speech... Keep adult material in the adult section & not to be purchased by minors but otherwise leave it alone! And please, please, please leave the gay commuity alone. The whole argument has gotten so tired & boring! GET OVER IT ALREADY!!!
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
What a bullshit argument. If Amazon has issue with these books, then they shouldn't be selling them. If they are going to sell them, then list the sales ranking fairly. They can't have it both ways. If they want to continue trying to, they can say goodbye to a lot of sales.
Thank you.
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