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Amazon is Burying Sexy Books, Sending Erotic Novel Authors to the 'No-Rank Dungeon' (vice.com)
Samantha Cole, reporting for Motherboard: In the last few days, word has spread among independent erotica authors on social media that Amazon was quietly changing its policies for erotic novels. Five authors I spoke to, and several more on social media, have reported that their books were stripped of their best seller rankings -- essentially hiding them from casual browsing on the site, and separating them from more mainstream, safe-for-work titles.
[...] Most people browsing Amazon books might not notice or care about the best seller rank -- a number that's based on how well the title is selling on Amazon.com -- but it's part of an algorithm that influences how the book appears in search, and whether it shows up in advertisements, including suggestions from one product to the next ("If you like this book, you might like this book"). For independent authors and booksellers, this ranking is hugely important for visibility.
[...] Most people browsing Amazon books might not notice or care about the best seller rank -- a number that's based on how well the title is selling on Amazon.com -- but it's part of an algorithm that influences how the book appears in search, and whether it shows up in advertisements, including suggestions from one product to the next ("If you like this book, you might like this book"). For independent authors and booksellers, this ranking is hugely important for visibility.
Not seeing the slippery slope here.
Seriously - a book about gay dinosaur sex (WTF?), on a site where more and more minors go browsing (so they can bug Mom and Dad to buy them whatever they find) is most likely not something you want turning up in generic results. Remove the silly Dino reference, and the same holds true for any adult vs. generic-audience book.
Couple of thoughts come to mind here...
* Amazon could have done this better (say, similar to Google or Bing's SafeSearch functions, where you have to opt-in before seeing adult material), but it's not a bad start from a parental POV.
* A question - does this change also hold true for non-book products Amazon offers on its site (like sex toys ferinstance)? If so, that is your benchmark as to where Amazon is going with this - whether its a trial balloon with just one type of product (books), an overall push to segregate adult-only from generic stuff, or...?
* Amazon is a private entity - it can organize its wares however it likes.
* No, a private organization self-censoring does not "send us back to Middle Age(sic)". It's government you have to watch out for, for signs like this.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
In the west fewer people may be religious nowadays but the mechanisms that undelie religions still operate on people and so we get this new wave of morality