[Dpock]

It appears erotica lost its store-wide rankings. Does anyone have thoughts on why Amazon decided to do this? I understand it happened on Amazon Germany some time ago.

 

[Ambran]

It would be nice if Amazon would explain, or respond to an e-mail I sent 7 hours ago to them!

 

[Tara KH]

Makes me wonder whether they will try to crack down on erotica again...

 

[Dpock]

I suspect it's a pretty clear message. If you want to write erotica, find another platform.

 

[SherylNantus]

While my self-pub BDSM books got hit, it's also affected publishers like St. Martin's Swerve imprint as well. I wrote two threesome books for them, "Betting on Both" and "Game On", and both have had their rankings pulled. Dropped my editor at St. Martin's Press a note - they may not be so happy about having the 'Zon do that to them.

 

[PhoenixS]

*************

 

[Atlantisatheart]

I wonder if this is anything to do with the AMS ads problem. The bad boy romances flooded AMS ads in most cats and didn't stay in their lane, my books were targeted with them, and my readers were complaining to me like it was my fault, were they complaining to the zone? Those ads disappeared a while back as amazon had a clear up, and now the ads seem to be pretty much genre related. I've noticed more ads with bare man chest that are PNR being rejected lately as well.

There also seems to be more books getting thrown into erotica, on other forums people are complaining about it, and now this.

Could there be a purge on books that should be in erotica but aren't and how many hapless authors will get caught up in it this time? 

 

[Dpock]

Watching.

I had noticed last night that E.L. James' GREY (pubbed via Random House) is overall-rank stripped too. It's Book 1 from Christian's POV. Book 2, DARKER, is categorized as Romance, and is #676 overall. GREY is #7 in Erotica, but not on the BS list.

Not sure yet whether it's affecting the API and algos, or is a page code glitch. While I have some books that *should* be categorized as erotica on my watch-list, I don't have any that are catted as erotica, so don't have history to compare to.

It hits some heavy players for sure. It's definitely a category decision, a broad sweep, with possible surgical strikes to follow.

 

[dianapersaud]

Watching.

I had noticed last night that E.L. James' GREY (pubbed via Random House) is overall-rank stripped too. It's Book 1 from Christian's POV. Book 2, DARKER, is categorized as Romance, and is #676 overall. GREY is #7 in Erotica, but not on the BS list.

Not sure yet whether it's affecting the API and algos, or is a page code glitch. While I have some books that *should* be categorized as erotica on my watch-list, I don't have any that are catted as erotica, so don't have history to compare to.

I just checked my Author Central page for my erotica only pen name and the graph shows a rank, BUT there is a message at the top (where you can select the time frame) that says:
This format of "TITLE HERE" is no longer ranked.

The overall rank has been removed from the store front, but the subcat rankings are still there.

This "rank stripping" seems to be targeted at erotica only. My other books are fine.

 

[Dpock]

They've eliminated the Top 100 list for erotica authors too. It's looking more like a purge now than some minor housekeeping.

 

[KelliWolfe]

Watching.

I had noticed last night that E.L. James' GREY (pubbed via Random House) is overall-rank stripped too. It's Book 1 from Christian's POV. Book 2, DARKER, is categorized as Romance, and is #676 overall. GREY is #7 in Erotica, but not on the BS list.

Not sure yet whether it's affecting the API and algos, or is a page code glitch. While I have some books that *should* be categorized as erotica on my watch-list, I don't have any that are catted as erotica, so don't have history to compare to.

It isn't a page glitch. My sales ranks on my erotica titles are MIA in Author Central as well. They're definitely up to something, and in the well-thought out way that Amazon does *everything* it's going to blow up in their faces as ten thousand erotica authors rush to slap new covers on their books and recategorize them as anything but erotica to regain visibility.

EDIT: Erotica author ranks are now gone as well. Interestingly, no one is reporting seeing massive jumps in the rankings of all non-erotica titles in the store that should happen if hundreds of thousands of erotica titles suddenly disappeared from the ranking lists.

 

[Becca Mills]

I hate this side of Amazon. The "everything store," sure, but ...

... OMG, not that.

 

[portiadacosta]

My books at Amazon UK still have ranks. But they've disappeared at Amazon.com

I wondered why my sales at the US store have virtually disappeared this month. Only four since 1st March. I don't sell many as a rule, but this is a new low, even for me, and I was wondering why... obviously the disappearing ranks would account for it.

My trad published stuff has lost rankings too.

Edited to add...

Rankings are missing at Author Central, but I just checked the books on Amazon.com and I see rankings [not very good ones, but they're there]. I wonder if I can see them because I'm searching from the UK?

 

[Dpock]

It isn't a page glitch....it's going to blow up in their faces as ten thousand erotica authors rush to slap new covers on their books and recategorize them as anything but erotica to regain visibility.

It would be smart and avoid the blow-up if this was part of Amazon's plan to give erotica its own ecosystem. A proper "back room" in other words, so the category didn't mix with non-erotica in general searches.

 

[Crystal_]

It isn't a page glitch. My sales ranks on my erotica titles are MIA in Author Central as well. They're definitely up to something, and in the well-thought out way that Amazon does *everything* it's going to blow up in their faces as ten thousand erotica authors rush to slap new covers on their books and recategorize them as anything but erotica to regain visibility.

EDIT: Erotica author ranks are now gone as well. Interestingly, no one is reporting seeing massive jumps in the rankings of all non-erotica titles in the store that should happen if hundreds of thousands of erotica titles suddenly disappeared from the ranking lists.

Actually, I had one book jump from where it was hanging out in the 1100 range to 800-something, but I assumed it was just a normal fluctuation or my redistributed ad budget kicking in. My other ranks looked a little higher too, but that could easily be because of former book, as it's currently my funnel.

 

[eroticatorium]

It would be smart and avoid the blow-up if this was part of Amazon's plan to give erotica its own ecosystem. A proper "back room" in other words, so the category didn't mix with non-erotica in general searches.

yeah I would love that. As long as some erotica authors can get their stuff into non-erotica categories, their books will be easier to find, so that's where erotica-readers will go. If only some people follow the rules, they get hosed.

 

[NoBlackHats]

https://imgur.com/gallery/LJAeNVY Timing seems suspicious.

 

[MissingAlaska]

https://imgur.com/gallery/LJAeNVY Timing seems suspicious.

Thanks for that link. I had no idea about that being passed. The elimination of personals on Craigslist is only the tip of the iceberg. There is no way, in my mind, that Amazon's actions are not connected to this law. Between this, the chaos on Facebooks, and the end of net neutrality, I believe we're about to see draconian changes on the internet.

 

[dianapersaud]

It isn't a page glitch. My sales ranks on my erotica titles are MIA in Author Central as well. They're definitely up to something, and in the well-thought out way that Amazon does *everything* it's going to blow up in their faces as ten thousand erotica authors rush to slap new covers on their books and recategorize them as anything but erotica to regain visibility.

EDIT: Erotica author ranks are now gone as well. Interestingly, no one is reporting seeing massive jumps in the rankings of all non-erotica titles in the store that should happen if hundreds of thousands of erotica titles suddenly disappeared from the ranking lists.

This. I expected rank to increase all across the board if tens of thousands of books lost their rank, but I haven't seen any significant changes.

 

[Dpock]

This. I expected rank to increase all across the board if tens of thousands of books lost their rank, but I haven't seen any significant changes.

Not significant, no, but quite a few are reporting a mysterious bump in general non-erotica rankings around 1:00 pm PT yesterday.