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Report 58

Associated Incidents

Incident 1524 Report
Amazon Censors Gay Books

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Amazon Censorship - Who is affected?
meta-writer.livejournal.com · 2009

I've been asked for more information and am collecting the books/authors that are affected

  • Author/title

  • Level of explicitness/genre

  • GLTB content?

  • Censored on which amazon website

  • Link (maybe even a screencap)?

Collection: Books that had their sales ranks removed:

Fiction

Out of a Top 100 Gay Novels List on Elisa Rolle's LJ almost all the books are "purged", including authors such as Jamie O'Neill, Edmund White, Andre Aciman. Link:

James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room

Annie Proulx Brokeback Mountain

Stripped of sales rank on amazon.com, but not on amazon.ca

http://www.amazon.ca/BROKEBACK-MOUNTAIN-ANNIE-PROULX/dp/2246699215ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239562478&sr=1-3

Jeanette Winterson's OrangesAre Not The Only Fruit

Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness.

None of which can be called "erotica" by any stretch of the imagination.

(the only "sex scene" in The Well of Loneliness consists in its entirety of the words "And that night they were not divided.")

Alex Beecroft: False Colours, m/m historical romance, just broken through and ranking in top 10 historical novels-- i.e. non-romance, non-gay-- and then it suddenly disappeared entirely from the rankings. The novel is NOT erotica, contains only one non-explicit sex scene, but the central premise features two male characters falling in love.

http://www.amazon.com/False-Colors-M-Romance/dp/0762436581

The Kindle version of False Colors has a sales rank but has had the 'an m/m romance' taken off its name!

http://www.amazon.com/False-Colors-ebook/dp/B0026A6C3Q

Censored on Amazon.com

Alex Beecroft, Captain's Surrender

heat level mild; about one page of sex scenes all told in a book 196 pages long

http://www.amazon.com/Captains-Surrender-Alex-Beecroft/dp/1602020892

Censored on Amazon.com

The Kindle version of Captain's Surrender has no sales rank either.

Erastes Transgressions - similar case to False Colours, screen cap here:

Erastes Standish

Erastes Speak Its Name

Erastes Frost Fair

(on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk)

Storm Grant - Gym Dandy

Level of explicitness/genre: a RomCom with a heat level of 2 out of 5.

GLTB content?: boy meets boy

Censored on which amazon website: .com, .uk, and .ca*

Proof of sales rank:

Leslie Feinberg Stone Butch Blues

http://www.amazon.com/Stone-Butch-Blues-Leslie-Feinberg/dp/1555838537

http://www.amazon.de/Stone-Butch-Blues-Leslie-Feinberg/dp/1555838537

Sales rank removed

Rita Mae Brown Rubyfruit Jungle

http://www.amazon.com/Rubyfruit-Jungle-Rita-Mae-Brown/dp/055327886X

http://www.amazon.de/Rubyfruit-Jungle-Rita-Mae-Brown/dp/055327886X

Sales rank removed

Sarah Waters Tipping The Velvet now has no sales rank in one of its editions ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tipping-Velvet-Virago-Sarah-Waters/dp/1860495249

http://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Velvet-Novel-Sarah-Waters/dp/1573227889/ref=pd_sim_b_2

http://www.amazon.de/Tipping-Velvet-Novel-Sarah-Waters/dp/1573227889/ref=

pd_sim_b_2

It still does in another edition:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tipping-Velvet-Sarah-Waters/dp/1844080110

The only difference seems to be that this one doesn't have the word "lesbian" anywhere in its "Look for similar items by subject".

E M Forster - Maurice

? ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239550630&sr=1-1

(Amazon.com - "Heat level" - neglegible)

(Sales rank removed)

Charlie Cochrane: Lessons in Love

http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Love-Charlie-Cochrane/dp/1602021481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239547504&sr=1-1

(no sex in the book)

(Sales rank removed)

Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man

http://www.amazon.com/Single-Man-Christopher-Isherwood/dp/0816638624/

Gay protagonist. I don't recall any explicit sex.

(Sales rank removed)

Edmund White's The Beautiful Room Is Empty

http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Room-Empty-Novel/dp/0679755403/

Haven't read, however, it's certainly critically acclaimed (as is A Single Man)

(Sales rank removed)

Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story

Both of the Edmund White novels do contain explicit sex scenes, but they're far from not "erotica", and they're acclaimed as literary classics.

(Sales rank removed)

Andrew Holleran's Dancer From The Dance

http://www.amazon.com/Dancer-Dance-Novel-Andrew-Holleran/dp/0060937068/

Gay protagonist. Non-explicit, though much is implied. Harold Robbins is steamier and retains his sales rank.

(Sales rank removed)

JL Langley's Tin Star (Amazon.ca)

(Sales rank removed)

James Buchanan: The Good Thief, Twice the Cowboy, Twice the Ride, Cheating Chance

(Only his print editions have had their sales rank stripped) Amazon.com

Screencap for Good Thief here:

More proof:

R W Day A Strong and Sudden Thaw Iris Press edition - has a ranking, Kindle version of the Lethe edition has a ranking. The print version of the Lethe edition does not (

When you search by title from the Amazon home page, the Lethe print edition doesn't even make the first page of results. In fact, the first hit is a book by another author with the same name as me, and the second is Ginn Hale's Wicke

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