Sorry, Amazon. I was 100% wrong in my last blog about censoring Amy Klobuchar’s book Antitrust.
Today, Sunday, May 16, Antitrust is available on Amazon. I bought it.
My good friend Jesse Kornbluth pointed out my error in screaming “censorship,” and I have to thank him for that because I don’t want to fall into the easy trap of being a conspiracy theorist.
What Jesse explained to me is that it isn’t Amazon that is making editorial decisions and not putting books up for sale, but that it is usually the publishers who delay getting all the proper information to Amazon on a timely basis.
I remember last summer when my textbook, Media Selling, 5th Edition, was published by Wiley Blackwell. I was notified by the publisher that the book was officially published in July. I remember going to Amazon that day to see if it was posted. The notification was that it would be available in September, which when I read it, disappointed me.
I often accuse people of playing the blame game, and now, with chagrin, I find myself playing it — unfairly, of course, as the blame game usually is.
I apologize, Amazon, for accusing you of censorship. I should have realized that all of the decisions about listing hundreds of thousands of books each year is fully automated. Decisions are made by AI, not human editors.
However, AI isn’t any fun. The blame game and crazy conspiracy theories are much more fun, especially when they confirm our biases.
