Joe Kraynak

Amazon’s Disreputable Marketing of The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Today, I searched Amazon.com Books for “bipolar disorder.” At the top of the list? J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard. That’s weird, I thought, maybe Beedle the Bard has bipolar disorder. Maybe I should order the book to find out.

On second thought, I doubted that Beedle the Bard had bipolar disorder. I decided to look up something else totally unrelated to fiction and J.K. Rowling. So I searched Amazon.com Books for “foreclosure.” Sure enough, at the top of the list again was J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Now, I know Amazon.com wants to sell books, and this is sure to be a big seller. I don’t mind having the title splashed in my face on the opening Amazon.com page or even in the margins of other pages I look at. I might even be able to tolerate a pop-up ad or two. However, when I search for books on specific topics, I expect Amazon.com to display only books that fit my topic description. Otherwise, what’s the point of having a search tool?