Amazon speaks!

[Guest guest]

And now for something completely different.... If you tuned in late, the

story was that 3 weeks ago books critical of AA suddenly vanished from the

amazon.com bestseller lists. I sent them the query below and within 48 hours

the lists were fixed and all the good stuff was back where it belonged. NOW

I get THIS answer. What's going on here? Anybody got a clue?

(sent 6/29)

Dear 'Health-Mind-Body' Editor,

I was just browsing through the best-seller lists of the various

sub-categories under 'recovery' and I was amazed to find that, with only one

exception, all books critical of, or offering alternatives to, Alcoholics

Anonymous and other 12-Step organizations have mysteriously vanished from

the lists sometime during the past month. For example, Jack Trimpey's book

on Rational Recovery was (if I recall correctly) at #1 in the Substance

Abuse category quite recently and right up there near the top on another

list. Now it is nowhere to be found. Other omissions include Audrey

Kishline's 'Moderation Management', Bufe's 'AA - Cult or Cure', Ken

Ragge's 'The Real AA', and Herbert Fingarette's 'Heavy Drinking.'

I would hate to think that Amazon.com is deliberately rigging the lists to

keep these admittedly controversial works out of sight, but other

explanations (coincidence?) don't seem sufficient. In the past year I have

been a very satisfied customer of Amazon (probably $200 in total orders) and

I have recommended your service to quite a few avid readers. That can't

continue unless my confidence in the honesty of your book-lists is restored.

Sincerely,

Walter G. Trice

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(received 7/18)

Dear Mr. Trice,

The recovery and other booklists that you refer to are based on

customers' actual purchases, so we're not " rigging " them to be critical

of AA. I know plenty of people who would probably be dead right now

without AA, and we're certainly not trying to exclude it or any other

12-step program from our lists. There has been a preponderance of

anti-12-step-program books out there lately, including " How AA Failed

Me, " which is due out in August. These books manage to get plenty of

publicity, they sell well, and therefore they're appearing on our lists.

These books are also popular with book clubs, support groups, etc., and

we therefore get bulk orders for them.

Thanks for writing.

Yours truly,

a nsen

Health, Mind & Body editor

ericaj@...

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