What do I think of Amazon’s latest attempt at PR? Not a lot. Judge for yourself. This is Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener speaking to the LA Times at 3: 03 pm 4/13/09:
This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.
It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.
Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.
They’ve restored many of the rankings under discussion, including mine. So yay for that. And many thanks to all the Amazon programmers doing the real work, a lot of it on a holiday weekend.
But there’s still no apology, and no credible explanation. There’s a lot we’re not hearing (see, for example, this Seattle P-I article), which makes me very thoughtful. One of the things I’m thinking is that I might use the BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:active {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:hover {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} IndieBound Affiliate Program from now on.
But I’m tired of talking about the pursed-mouthed PR prats at the Behemoth Up the Street. I don’t believe a word they say…
…which coincidentally is the name of a song written and performed by Janes Plane many years ago. It was caught for posterity on TV cameras.
Here’s a screenshot (yep, taken from the infamous ‘Yikes! You look like David Bowie!‘ series):
And here’s the audio:
http://www.nicolagriffith.com/audio/player.swf
direct link
Not the best thing we ever did (not even close) but, hey, we were all nervous: Live in front of 2,000 people! TV cameras! (We were very young…) Besides, the vague paranoia and fudged internal band communication (no, those bridges really aren’t meant to be that long…) seems perfectly appropriate this week.
Nicola Griffith 
I noticed you were un-hooked. I don’t know what to tell google; WHATEVER was going on, WHATEVER it was, books with gay characters were included as adult content. Whether it was a bigoted person in the company, a loophole in the tags, a “glitch,” it is a clear fail.
it’s true… no apology. talk about “ham-fisted.” how hard is it to say “we’re deeply sorry”?
Love the song! Perfect.
Who can believe anything they say after this? Not me. And that sux. I really want to believe them because buying stuff there is convenient and cheaper than most.
I like the last sentence in this morning’s PW article: “The incident is likely to increase the industry’s concerns about Amazon’s dominant place in publishing and bookselling.”
The best ant-Tinkerbell song I’ve heard. You were a really good band, nervous or not. No chance of getting part of the video on the blog, huh? By the way, Amazon should remember who the Amazons were.
I don’t understand the lack of apology. Whether it was internal error or not, the entire affair has made them look like giant idiots. The problem targeted groups of people who have been historically marginalised and it’s only right that people got angry about it. Amazon should apologise. I had a coversation with my partner about it this morning, and we’ve decided not to buy from Amazon anymore. It’ll be more inconvenient, and potentially more expensive, but they handled this very badly.
I emailed them and did not even get as much as an acknowledgement of receipt – mind you their website was going bonkers the other night and I had to post the thing about 5 times before it was accepted so maybe they never received it. I might write again. Frankly an apology is such STANDARD business practice – companies apologise at the drop of a hat usually if the slightest mistake has been made so this omission is doubley damning!!
This lack of apology is where they are really failing. It’s a pity–so easily fixed.
<>barbara<>, anti-Tinkerbell, ha, I like that.
What’s been bothering me is that I just don’t see exactly how this is some sort of ham-fisted ‘glitch’ in the first place, unless Amazon had certain works flagged internally for content. Then that would explain a lot, without them bothering to explain anything.
Thanks for your posts about this, Nicola. I’m a writer at a start-up Web site and have been covering gay marriage for some time now. I did piece about the power of bloggers and twitter in this Amazon fiasco and quoted you: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/entertainment/2009/april/Amazonfail-Is-a-Twitter-Success.html
You have every right to be furious, but I’m also wondering what you think of think this piece suggesting although this is upsetting, it’s a sign that gay rights are making mainstream headway: http://blog.findingdulcinea.com/2009/04/gay-rights-in-the-mainstream-media-gay-rights-in-the-twitter-stream.html
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. Best and Good luck!