WrenchNinja
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http://ew.com/books/2017/08/24/handbook-for-mortals-pulled-new-york-times-bestseller-list/amp/
More in the article. Hilarious and fascinating. Mock and lock if old.
On Thursday, Book Twitter the part of Twitter where publishers, authors, readers, and journalists discuss the industry and its literature inspired the New York Times to revise its upcoming best-seller list. If you didnt happen to be following along all day, you were probably confused, especially since each new fact that emerged was more astounding than the last. Heres what happened.
When the Times released its young-adult best-seller list for the week of Sep. 3, it came with a huge surprise. Angie Thomas The Hate U Give, a story about a young black girl whose friend is killed by the police, had been on the list for 25 weeks but was knocked out of the top spot by a newcomer: Handbook for Mortals, by Lani Sarem. The problem, as Pajiba first reported, was that no one had ever heard of this book.
YA author Phil Stamper was one of the first to point out on Twitter that the placement would mean a book thats out of stock on Amazon had somehow sold about 5,000 copies in its first week (authors agree thats about the number a book needs to sell to crack the list). On top of that, Handbook for Mortals was the debut novel from both its author and its publisher, GeekNation. Originally established as a pop culture website in 2012, GeekNation only launched its book publishing arm in July. Something smelled fishy, and it only got weirder from there.
It didnt take long before multiple obscure celebrities from the early-2000s were linked to the mystery. Sarem is apparently the cousin of former N Sync member J.C. Chasez, who tweeted his encouragement when Handbook was published earlier this month. When another Book Twitter detective uncovered that Sarem was once a music manager who worked with bands like Blues Traveler, the official Blues Traveler account weighed in, tweeting that yes this is weird but not surprising We fired her for these kind of stunts. Her sense of denial is staggering! The tweet has since been deleted.
On top of that, GeekNation was co-founded by Clare Kramer, who portrayed Glory on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie, Rookie of the Year) was also involved hes planning to star in an eventual movie adaptation. This movie seemed to be the ulterior motive behind whatever was happening.
More in the article. Hilarious and fascinating. Mock and lock if old.