During the article, I wondered what the writer's end goal was. Then I saw that she wants to portray the lead in a movie version, and I can only assume this will be some Neil Breen-level, awesomely-bad garbage.
How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
31–40 of 85 posts
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#32The consensus I've seen from people in the publishing industry is that lots of books buy their way onto the NYT bestseller list, but this one is just being much less subtle about it.
I like this one better than people shelling out $200k to make the list because they exploited a bug in the system -- this didn't cost anything outside the manpower to place these orders which will never go through or be charged.
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#33"Buying your way onto the bestseller list is not technically illegal, nor is it that hard if you know how. Many CONSERVATIVE publishers have found success through bulk-buying books then giving them away as, say, subscriber gifts if you sign up to Newsmax or the like. "
hmmm, conservative only? Biased much? Is the strategy of buying placement somehow undiscovered by publishers of liberal persuasion?
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#34The consensus I've seen from people in the publishing industry is that lots of books buy their way onto the NYT bestseller list, but this one is just being much less subtle about it.
I like this one better than people shelling out $200k to make the list because they exploited a bug in the system -- this didn't cost anything outside the manpower to place these orders which will never go through or be charged.
Thank you. The article is treating the NYT bestseller list as sacrosanct. Someone figured a (relatively) cheap way to hack it. Good for them.
As someone who just published a children's book if I thought this would work I would try it.
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#35This "buyer" is not going to buy any of the books. The trick only works because the book is considered published yet it is out of stock so has to be back ordered. And these back orders still count for the NYT bestseller list. My guess is they somehow triggered some sort of last second revision for their own book at the publisher thus pausing the printing. So the book is technically published and available in various…
When the Ch\wrch of Sc\w+nt\wl\wgy did this they actually had their cultists pay for the books. Most of them were then sold to second-hand book stores. Because money actually came through to them, Waldenbooks and B. Dalton were happy to order enough to keep up with the fake demand.
> the Ch\wrch of Sc\w+nt\wl\wgy
What's going on here?
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#36During the article, I wondered what the writer's end goal was. Then I saw that she wants to portray the lead in a movie version, and I can only assume this will be some Neil Breen-level, awesomely-bad garbage.
It's called a Mary Sue character. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
When the Ch\wrch of Sc\w+nt\wl\wgy did this they actually had their cultists pay for the books. Most of them were then sold to second-hand book stores. Because money actually came through to them, Waldenbooks and B. Dalton were happy to order enough to keep up with the fake demand.
> the Ch\wrch of Sc\w+nt\wl\wgy What's going on here?
Likely an attempt to obscure the phrase from search.
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
When the Ch\wrch of Sc\w+nt\wl\wgy did this they actually had their cultists pay for the books. Most of them were then sold to second-hand book stores. Because money actually came through to them, Waldenbooks and B. Dalton were happy to order enough to keep up with the fake demand.
> the Ch\wrch of Sc\w+nt\wl\wgy What's going on here?
It's regex-encoded (for a lack of better term). \w means any letter (or number, or underscore), the + after the \w means one or more repetitions of it.
I believe it's supposed to decode as "Church of Scientology"
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like this one better than people shelling out $200k to make the list because they exploited a bug in the system -- this didn't cost anything outside the manpower to place these orders which will never go through or be charged.
Thank you. The article is treating the NYT bestseller list as sacrosanct. Someone figured a (relatively) cheap way to hack it. Good for them. As someone who just published a children's book if I thought this would work I would try it.
[deleted]
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#40During the article, I wondered what the writer's end goal was. Then I saw that she wants to portray the lead in a movie version, and I can only assume this will be some Neil Breen-level, awesomely-bad garbage.
Neil Breen, explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KolenE1GCyg (NSFW audio, probably NSFW video)