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.
Neil Breen, explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KolenE1GCyg (NSFW audio, probably NSFW video)
How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
51–60 of 85 posts
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#52Spike Trottman's tweets around this present some interesting points: https://twitter.com/Iron_Spike/status/900797323403554817 Mot notably: this has been used as a tactic to get books and comics optioned for films (which will make more money than selling books ever does), and the author is a no-name actor who - surprise! - is angling to play the lead in the film of her #1 bestselling novel.
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#53"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?
#54The NYT bestseller list has been a horrible indicator of what's selling for a while. You can often see well-known authors make the list weeks before their books are out due to massive orders by big box stores. A much better source are Indie Bound's Indie Bestseller lists: https://www.indiebound.org/indie-bestsellers . While still able to be gamed, these lists are compiled based off of sales by independent booksellers…
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#55I believe NYT has a bookstore list for reporting orders. This is how the best selling books make it on this list. The buyer (someone tied to the book) probably knew the store was on the NYT list and made a massive order. The NYT will need to tweak things going forward. Any store telling people they are on the NYT Best Seller reporting list should be removed from the list.
The story specifically mentions that there were suspicious calls asking if a store was a NYT reporting store, followed by bulk orders with no delivery date.
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the Ch\wrch of Sc\w+nt\wl\wgy What's going on here?
You can get into trouble if you speak ill of the Ch*rch in public. This hinders discoverability.
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#57Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to the article: > Nowadays, you can make the bestseller list with about 5,000 sales. That sounds pretty cheap. For a book that costs $10-20 that would be $50-100K to buy your way in. I'm not sure what the margins for books are these days (particularly the split between publisher and retailer) but that doesn't seem that expensive.
5000 sales at a reporting store. So that probably represents 50,000 actual books sold since not every store reports. I think Nate Silver ought to do some work on this area; it would be interesting to read his analysis.
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can get into trouble if you speak ill of the Ch*rch in public. This hinders discoverability.
Trouble with who? The Church? I'm familiar with their weirdo bullying tactics but you can't really take them seriously - they have no power.
Re: How did “Handbook for Mortals” get on the NYT bestseller list?
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can get into trouble if you speak ill of the Ch*rch in public. This hinders discoverability.
Trouble with who? The Church? I'm familiar with their weirdo bullying tactics but you can't really take them seriously - they have no power.