Amazon may take a bite out of local erotic novelist's sales

T.J. Michaels's books are in the twilight zone.

The Bonney Lake writer of erotic paranormal fiction says her books have been “de-listed” by Amazon’s rankings, the latest in a slew of complaints against the online bookseller.

Michaels said her books, including “Doing It the Hard Way,” were stripped of their sales ranks on Amazon.com.

 “If you try to look at the bestsellers my books don’t show up anymore,” she said. “So unless a reader knows a title for my book, it would be hard to find.”

Amazon said a "glitch" caused the sales rank to be removed from gay- and/or lesbian-themed books by James Baldwin, Gore Vidal and Chelsea Handler, the Associated Press reported.

The online retailer has apologized and promised that the numbers would be restored, according to the Associated Press.

Amazon spokesman Andrew Herdener said that 57,310 books had been affected, the AP reported.

Among them, Michaels's books featuring romance and multicultural vampires, for example.

She said being without rankings for even a short time could have a big impact on sales.

“It’s going to hit me in the pocketbook," said Michaels, who published her first novel, “Primed to Pounce,” in June 2006. "It’s hard to make a sale if a person has to jump through a million hoops to find your books.”

Her books are published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

“They (Amazon) get paid for this, it’s not like they’re doing me some big favor,” Michaels said.

“I don’t know what’s in the agreement between my publisher and Amazon but I’d be interested to know if they’re breaking any rules here.”