LISNews: Librarian News

Writers of gay romance noticed, over the past few days, that books in the "Gay Romance" category have disappeared from the best-seller list in that category. Publisher and author Mark Probst, whose book, "The Filly" is a gay young-adult book without explicit content, queried Amazon. This is what they said to him:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.
Best regards,
Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

The Livejournal community http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11369.html
is tracking this and accumulating data, some of which follows. -- Read More

Cory Doctorow says Amazon's Kindle 2 text-to-speech feature is not so much violating authors' copyright but rather basic consumer rights.

Dropping $359 (£251) on a device whose features are subject to the outcomes of ongoing negotiations to which you are not a party is, frankly, nuts. Would you buy a car if it was known that your air-conditioner and stereo system could be remotely disabled?

Apparently, today’s a good day for bad news, with Google laying off 200 employees, our own cutbacks here at The NY Times, and now, Amazon.com weighing in with some cost-cutting of its own. Over the next two months, the online retailer will close three distribution centers: in Red Rock, Nev.; Munster, Ind.; and Chambersburg, Pa.

The 210 employees in those three facilities were informed Wednesday. They will get severance packages and an opportunity to transfer to other Amazon shipping locations.

Full story here.

Interactive fiction (or text adventures) seem like a natural fit on Amazon's ebook device, but IF author Howard Sherman finds it a tough nut to crack.

Says Sherman, "The issue boils down to the Kindle being locked up tighter than the technical design plans to the NEXT iPhone Apple is working on. There’s no easy way in there. Even though Kindle runs in a Linux environment it’s far from an open plane to deliver outside titles on. "

Full story here: Interactive Fiction on the Kindle