Amazon not Gay/Lesbian friendly?

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Ibelong

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Okay...maybe it's just me...but...

I've noticed something with Amazon. In order to find G/L romance books I have too look under "books". If I go to kindle books, the selection for G/L is not there.

Why is that? Granted the print is REEEEEEEEALY small and my eyes are equally bad...but I'm pretty sure it's not there. At least not obviously there like it is in the standard book selection.

Any thoughts?
 

Mara

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I'd heard they had a problem like this a few years ago, but was under the impression that they corrected their "mistake." If not, that kinda sucks.
 

Unimportant

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Exactly one year ago (Easter weekend 2009) Amazon "accidentally" de-ranked all GLBTQ books so that they wouldn't show up in any kind of search unless you actually typed the book title in. There was some waffling from them about customers being "offended" if they inadvertantly ran across a book with GLBTQ content, so those books were hidden. And then more waffling about some employee in France who pressed the wrong button. With the upshot being that books about "curing" homosexuality popped up at the top of every search, but YA novels in which a gay or lesbian character had adventures that involved no sex whatsoever were un-find-able.

It'd be....weird....if there were another AmazonFail on Easter again....
 

Ibelong

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Exactly one year ago (Easter weekend 2009) Amazon "accidentally" de-ranked all GLBTQ books so that they wouldn't show up in any kind of search unless you actually typed the book title in. There was some waffling from them about customers being "offended" if they inadvertantly ran across a book with GLBTQ content, so those books were hidden. And then more waffling about some employee in France who pressed the wrong button. With the upshot being that books about "curing" homosexuality popped up at the top of every search, but YA novels in which a gay or lesbian character had adventures that involved no sex whatsoever were un-find-able.

It'd be....weird....if there were another AmazonFail on Easter again....



WOW...well in their defense I've been having this problem for a while, not just now.
I thought it was my imagination. 'Cause one time I am SURE I found them...then I tried again a few days later and it was gone....

Trying to find the m/m romances is pretty tough, you really have to dig for them.
 

Ardent Kat

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Not just Amazon pulling that sort of thing. I just went to PaperbackSwap.com trying to find Kenji Yoshino's Covering (book about pressure for marginalized groups to "cover" written by a gay Asian man). I did a search for "Kenji Yoshino" and nothing turns up. I did a search for the book title and nothing turned up (whether using keywords or the exact full title.) Only if I copy/paste the ISBN does the book show up.

What a load of crap.
 

friendlyhobo

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Another reason (in a long line of good reasons) to shop from local brick and mortar, or specialized online stores. They can always order things for you. I'm pretty sure my public library is more LGBT friendly than amazon.com. No wait, I'm positive it is.
 

Selah March

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WOW...well in their defense I've been having this problem for a while, not just now.
I thought it was my imagination. 'Cause one time I am SURE I found them...then I tried again a few days later and it was gone....

Trying to find the m/m romances is pretty tough, you really have to dig for them.

Link to Amazon bestsellers in gay romance.

Don't remember where I found it, but I added it to my toolbar so I'd never lose it again. ;)
 

benbradley

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Not just Amazon pulling that sort of thing. I just went to PaperbackSwap.com trying to find Kenji Yoshino's Covering (book about pressure for marginalized groups to "cover" written by a gay Asian man). I did a search for "Kenji Yoshino" and nothing turns up. I did a search for the book title and nothing turned up (whether using keywords or the exact full title.) Only if I copy/paste the ISBN does the book show up.

What a load of crap.
I understand PaperbackSwap, other swap services and "social networking" book sites such as LibraryThing (see my blog entry on how I collect books for names of more online book trading and book-related social network sites) use third-party database services, and it may be those services that are the problem. It might be enlightening to do such searches on other sites and also look up what databases they use to see if there's some connection with the results.

Larger sites such as Amazon and bn.com undoubtedly have full control (whether anomalies are due to "technical glitches" or intentional manipulation) over what searches come up with what results.
 

MumblingSage

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Barring that, it helps to search for books tagged 'gay romance' or something similar (I've discovered several good books that way).
 

Lady Ice

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WOW...well in their defense I've been having this problem for a while, not just now.
I thought it was my imagination. 'Cause one time I am SURE I found them...then I tried again a few days later and it was gone....

Trying to find the m/m romances is pretty tough, you really have to dig for them.

Giovanni's Room is a great novel with that. It's not genre but it is a very good read.

Wikipedia might also give a list of novels.
 

shaldna

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Ok, I was in town on Sunday and visited 5 bookstores, including some chain stores (waterstones, easons and whsmiths) in search of a good M/M romance. I had to ask in each store where they were, and each time I was informed that they didn't stock 'those sort of books'.

I think that's pretty sad.

I hate the fact that I have to resort to the internet for what I want.
 

veinglory

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Amazon isnlt really friendly to any group, but they sure want you to buy books from them. A few glitches aside i have found on print stuff there that nobodies else carries. And the algorythm for suggesting books based on other books or on your purchases works well.
 

efreysson

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Huh. I just searched "Gay" and "Lesbian" in the UK Amazon site, and got plenty of results.
 

mscelina

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Amazon only cares about Amazon. If you want something really f***ed up about "those kinds of books" whether gay or straight, take a gander at Paypal:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6309

In case you ever wondered why some publishers don't accept Paypal, there you go. That's been ongoing for several years.
 
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