Who but a cataloger could imagine that someday a “cataloging error” would make headlines?

That’s what Amazon is claiming as the cause of nearly 60,000 titles, many of them gay and lesbian-themed, being stripped of their sales rankings, rendering them difficult to find in searches and creating a PR nightmare.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports official responses, as well as one from a former Amazon employee saying that,

A guy from Amazon France got confused on how he was editing the site, and mixed up ‘adult,’ which is the term they use for porn, with stuff like ‘erotic’ and ’sexuality.’ That browse node editor is universal, so by doing that there he affected ALL of Amazon.

Seattle PI business reporter Andrea James has been updating her Amazon & the Business of Online Retailing blog as the story develops.

The errors have now been fixed, but at least one author is not satisfied, feeling Amazon has not apologized sufficiently, nor have they promised to establish safeguards against this situation happening again:

Craig Seymour, “Craig’s Pop Life” blog, My Response to Amazon’s Statement

The hot book news from the weekend is that Amazon suddenly and inexplicably stripped sales rankings from  ”adult” books (which includes gay-themed books, even those that wouldn’t get an R-rating, such as Ellen Degeneres’s bio). Online sites lit up in outrage, boycotts were threatened, and the tag #amazonfail became the top trending topic on Twitter.

Amazon is now saying this was a “glitch” and will be fixed shortly. We may never know the truth of what happened, but it’s another lesson in how swift the reaction can be from unhappy customers.

A new Twitter group has formed, #glitchmyass.

Salon, Why did gay books disappear from Amazon?

PC Magazine, Amazon Eliminates Sales Rankings; Twitter Erupts

Entertainment Weekly, Amazon.com under criticism for de-ranking gay-themed books

The Guardian, ‘Gay writing’ falls foul of Amazon sales ranking system

Los Angeles Times, Jacket Copy blog, Amazon responds to queries, blames a ‘glitch’

After the brisk activity of the past two weeks, this week’s bestseller list is remarkably quiet, with only a handful of debuts.

Other than the Wimpy Kid at #1, you have to go to #25 before you hit a new title and it’s not really new. The hardcover was published in 2004. The 2005 paperback reprint hits the list for the first time, thanks to the magic of the author’s appearing on Oprah’s Best Life Week series. Of all the books that were featured during that week, this one has the highest position on the current list. Libraries are showing heavy reserves.

Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow 
Lesser, Elizabeth

• Paperback: $14.95; 352 pages
• Publisher: Villard (June 14, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0375759913
• ISBN-13: 978-0375759918

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It’s not until #50 that a new hardcover appears:

Mounting Fears
Stuart Woods

• Hardcover: $25.95; 304 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (January 13, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0399155473
• ISBN-13: 978-0399155475

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After that, the next new title is at #128,

The Best of Everything
Roby, Kimberla Lawson

• Hardcover: $23.99; 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (January 13, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0061443069
• ISBN-13: 978-0061443060

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Among books-to-movies, Revolutionary Road is climbing the list. It’s now at #9, its highest point after 4 weeks on the list. The Reader at #25, is also at its peak after 5 weeks.

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Most  mass market paperback originals hit the list and then slide down precipitously. Not so for Star Bright which is at #15, its highest point after 3 weeks. Some libraries are showing very heavy holds.

Star Bright, by Catherine Anderson

• Paperback: $7.99; 432 pages
• Publisher: Signet (January 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0451225716
• ISBN-13: 978-0451225719

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A new YA series debuts at #97 from a familiar name, 

 3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows 
Brashares, Ann

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: $18.99; 336 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (January 13, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0385736762
• ISBN-13: 978-0385736763

Great quote in today’s Shelf Awareness:

The first rule is you never tell a customer we don’t have something until you’ve asked two other people . . . And the other thing is, don’t be an ‘over there’ store. Take the customer, show them where the book is, walk with them to where it is. ‘Over there’ could be anywhere in the whole store.”–Betty Jackson of the Happy Bookseller, Columbia, S.C., Columbia Free Times

Unfortunately, the quote is part of a story about the bookstore closing. Clearly, poor customer service was NOT one of their problems.

As you may have heard, the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight broke box office records this weekend. The effect on books was pretty stunning as well.

Curiously, in books, it is the NEXT Batman movie (I should have said, “the NEXT movie based on a famous DC Comics series.”  Thanks for the correction, Katie and the others who wrote in!) that generated the most sales. Not due out until March 2009, anticipation for the Watchmen is already building. A Watchmen trailer preceded showings of Dark Knight, sending the book it’s based on to #2 over the weekend (still not managing to unseat Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn) where it remains. (For Watchmen titles, see earlier post).

Below are the other Batman titles now on the Amazon Top 100:

#12 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 

by Frank Miller, Lynn Varley (Colorist), Klaus Janson (Illustrator) 

Listed as not in stock until August 24

• Paperback: $14.00
• Publisher: DC Comics; 10 Anv edition (May 1, 1997)
• ISBN-10: 1563893428
• ISBN-13: 978-1563893421

Borders new concept stores

Many years ago, when Borders began to expand their stores beyond Ann Arbor, media reports often commented, with some amazement, that they seemed like libraries. The stores had comfy chairs, encouraged browsing, offered lots of titles and even allowed people to read books they didn’t buy.

This week, Reuters trumpets,”New Borders Stores Combine Literary and Digital Worlds.” Hmm, now that sounds even MORE like a library. USA Today, in comparing bricks and mortar stores to online booksellers, reports, “One of the saving graces for bookstores, say analysts, consumers and industry officials, is they offer people with shared interests a site to gather and socialize.” Hmm, sounds like ALA past president, Leslie Burger, talking about libraries as community centers.

Borders premiered the first of its new “concept stores” yesterday. As USA Today puts it, the chain “hopes to reverse years of sluggish sales by reinventing itself as a hub for knowledge, entertainment and digital downloading.” They plan to open thirteen more stores by the end of the year. Among the new offerings, Borders is working with Internet companies such as Ancestor.com to allow customers to do genealogy searches.

It’s amusing to read about Borders new approaches to merchandising, like displaying cooking magazines and books together. How many different shelving approaches have libraries tried over the years?Borders press release gives full details (with a few ideas worth stealing).