diff --git a/plugins/Amazon.py b/plugins/Amazon.py
index 1657c7505..a840136f8 100644
--- a/plugins/Amazon.py
+++ b/plugins/Amazon.py
@@ -120,8 +120,8 @@ class Amazon(callbacks.PrivmsgCommandAndRegexp):
                 else:
                     results['url'] = ' <%s>' % results['url']
                 s = reply % results
-                s = u'%s' % s
-                s = s.encode('utf-8')
+                if isinstance(s, unicode):
+                    s = s.encode('utf-8')
                 res.append(str(s))
             except amazon.AmazonError, e:
                 self.log.warning(str(e))