Thanks so much, Amazon.

I appreciate the kind, thoughtful manner in which you have chosen to demean my work, and devalue the effort that I and so many others like me have devoted to our craft.

Merry Christmas right back at'cha.

Some time ago, apparently, somebody at Amazon hit upon the bright idea of listing those writers whose work appears in anthologies sold at their website as "contributors" rather than authors. Some of us who have contributed to such anthologies were a bit miffed over this; after all, without our work there would be no book to sell. "I've written this essay or short story, therefore I am its author."

Others were a bit less rankled at the time, convinced it was nothing more than a matter of semantics. "You may have written that short story or essay, but you are not the sole author of the book in which it appears; you are but one of several contributors." Well, okay, I guess I buy that argument.

But now - just in time for Christmas - the grinches at Amazon have taken their vendetta against writers of short-form literature a step further. I'm told that now Amazon is refusing to even list such participants as "contributors."

Now to tell the truth, I might not have even noticed this if it hadn't been for an e-mail I received from Win Scott Eckert - valued friend, talented colleague and (as it happens) editor of an anthology in which one of my essays appears. The book - entitled "Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe" - came out several years ago and has developed a pretty fair following, I'm told. It was even nominated for LOCUS Award, in spite of my involvement with the project.

The book is a tribute to the writings of Farmer, one of the true giants of science fiction and fantasy who passed away earlier this year. More than that, it actually contains a number of essays written by Farmer himself.

So there's the irony of the thing, I guess: Phil Farmer isn't even listed as a contributor to a book in which his name appears in the title!

Never mind the fact that there were all these other writers who also provided quality work that has made the book a success. People like my friends Chris Carey, Dennis Power, Chuck Loridans, Matthew Baugh, Rick Lai, Jess Nevins, Peter Coogan, Cheryl Huttner, Mark Brown, Brad Mengel, Loki Carbis and Art Bollman.

Oh, yeah, and me too. Not that I'm blowing my own horn, but there must have been SOMETHING in the piece Win liked or he never would have included it.

Makes a writer feel good to see his own work included among that of such other talented writers. To see my name appear in the same table of contents as that of Phil Farmer - an author I've been reading since I was 12 years old - that's real close to being like a rookie right out of college ball getting to bat right behind Hank Aaron or Cal Ripkin Jr.

For a guy whose life's work has mostly consisted of 25 years of newspaper articles and columns that have ended up as fish wrap, appearing in a book with Farmer felt like quite an achievement.

Until Amazon told me my work didn't matter.

Win - ever the master of understatement - said in his blog the other day that Amazon's action "devalues those of us who write for anthologies."

I say it just downright sucks.