“Identifies Revolutionary Online Community as Vision of Veteran Glbt Author. For first time, Writers, Artists, Publishers Unite in Retail Environment Independent of Traditional Bookselling Industry.”

For_Immediate_Release:

(Free-Press-Release.com) June 25, 2009 –

Adelaide, South Australia – June 25, 2009 Bestselling gay author Mel Keegan has masterminded a web-based cohesive organization combining the skills of writers, publishers, editors, agents, reviewers and artists in the GLBT community to provide an unprecedented public access portal to independent- and small-publisher titles. GLBT Bookshelf is an online resource designed to counter the perceived discriminatory practices of major players in the book retail scene.

Frustrated by the infamous “AmazonFail” fiasco of early 2009, in which the online retail giant was suspected of attempting to deny GLBT literature the benefits of its promotional systems, Keegan conceived of an online community in which all such systems were circumvented…Read the full Press Release here!

I’ve joined brothers and sisters in blogging arms in light of recent reports. I can only hope when all is said and done, the following information proves to be misinformation. At this point, judging from the correlating information I’ve been able to find myself, the following does indeed appear to be valid. You decide.

Amazon Rank – This is what happens when a company gets too big for its boots.

Some of those authors being affected that we know and love are:

Lauren Dane (has written post on Amazon Fail)

Erastes

Alex Beecroft

Storm Grant (has written post on Amazon Fail)

Victor Banis

Josh Lanyon

Rick R. Reed

They have reportedly lost their Amazon rankings on some of their books.

1. They no longer show up in bestseller lists
2. They no longer show up in searches

According to Author Rick R. Reed, “This new policy, or whatever it is, can have detrimental and disastrous consequences to GLBT authors, making their books invisible when they search. It’s quite akin to shoving us in a literary closet” (GWR group, 2009).

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**Because the list of authors are too huge to list: Update: New Post from Meta Writer who has listed various erotic and gay books that have been affected by Amazon’s censoring decision

Mark R. Probst has reported this latest Amazon controversy on his Live Journal:

On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: “Transgressions” by Erastes and “False Colors” by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a glitch of some sort? The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book “The Filly.” There was buzz, What’s going on? Does Amazon have some sort of campaign to suppress the visibility of gay books? Is it just a major glitch in the system? Many of us decided to write to Amazon questioning why our rankings had disappeared. Most received evasive replies from customer service reps not versed in what was happening. As I am a publisher and have an Amazon Advantage account through which I supply Amazon with my books, I had a special way to contact them. 24 hours later I had a response:

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

Also some other excellent posts on this subject I recommend you visit:

Uncommon Jen “It’s A Matter of Choice”
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books “Amazon Rank” **AMAZON RANK LINK**
Dear Author “Amazon Censors It’s Rankings”
Meta Writer “Collection of Amazon’s Censor Fail”

Why not speak up?
Contact Amazon Exec office e-mail – ecr@amazon.com or the customer service phone number at 1-800-201-7575.

Further steps that may be taken: