Amazon: "ham-fisted" error caused glitch with gay books

Amazon has been taking a beating online for the removal of sales ranking on a number of gay- and lesbian-themed books. The company initially called it a glitch that was being fixed. Now Amazon is calling it a "ham-fisted" error that goes far beyond gay titles.

Here's a statement from Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener:

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

I asked Herdener about reports of a hacker who's claiming credit for the glitch. Herdener responded: "This was our error," without elaborating.

About Eric Engleman

ERIC ENGLEMAN is senior technology staff writer for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering online retail giant Amazon.com. Engleman tracks Amazon's increasingly complex business, spanning ecommerce, Kindle, cloud computing, and more. He's been covering technology and other industries for the Business Journal since 2003.

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