Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Author, Author!

I’m a writer trying to get published. I learned Monday that being a gay writer was apparently an obstacle on Amazon.com.

Just a few days ago, writer Mark Probst began a nationwide furor after he posted on his blog that he'd noticed the sales rankings on hundreds of gay and lesbian books -- including the newly released Transgressions by Erastes and False Colors by Alex Beecroft -- had suddenly disappeared on Amazon.com. Even established and distinguished writers, including Gore Vidal, Annie Proulx and E.M. Forster, suddenly lost their best-seller ranking, which is the number that Amazon uses to show how well one title sells compared with another.

The rankings often help produce more sales. In response to a note Probst sent the online retailer, an Amazon.com representative said, "In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude 'adult' material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists."

Apparently, it was found that this "adult" tag was also being given to Heather Has Two Mommies (remember that one??) and Ellen DeGeneres' autobiography. If you’ve ever seen DeGeneres’ writings, concerts, films, and of course TV talk show, you know the woman hovers under PG-13. And get this. The explicit memoir by porn star Ron Jeremy and Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds, which includes pictures of more than 600 naked women, are still being ranked like nothing ever happened.

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth by me. As it is, online retailers and bookstores often marginalize LGBT literature, and literature by authors of color for that matter. We often have a small section in a store or on a site apart from everyone else. Something like this makes it worse.

It hit home with me because I’m in the middle of efforts to self-publish my first novel, and it will likely involve a print on demand option, whereby my novel would be available online and link to sites like Amazon.com for exposure. I imagined someone acquainted with me looking for my book or other books b y gay authors and not finding them.

Amazon.com later came out with a statement declaring the tag was a search error that has been resolved, adding that it also affected books in the area of erotica, health, and medicine. There apparently was no deliberate effort to shot out LGBT-themed work. I’m a little skeptical. How could Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds not have been tagged in the erotica category? I’m not even going to talk about Mr. Jeremy.

This was tantamount to an electronic, if temporary, ban of sorts. Even if there was an error, someone had to program certain key words into the system in the first place. And it makes me wonder why words like “gay” and “lesbian” – and apparently the sexual orientation of authors – became some sort of red flag that banished literary works into the forbidden category.

Would this have been corrected if no one had raised a ruckus about it? I have my doubts. I’m very concerned because amazon.com is the #1 portal for not just books, but other products online. You have to wonder if other sites that sell literature, movies, or anything else could do the same thing to censor gay content.

When it’s my turn to get out there, I don’t want to be blocked or censored. It’s enough for any writer these days just to win and maintain an audience.