Link Salad, Sad Puppies Edition

[chris_gerrib]

Because they've been accumulating:

A) "it's not against the rules!" No, it's not against the rules, because we don't have a rule against unsportsmanlike conduct.

B) Arthur Chu thinks we have a case of "lazy democracy" and notes a small group of deranged trolls can ruin anything.

C) Doctor Science at Obsidian Wings wonders why the Sad Puppies can't at least find good fiction. (My answer - they think what they nominated is good.)

D) From Elizabeth Bear, this snafu can't break science fiction and it's very hard to prevent people from gaming a system.

E) From Jason Sanford, hard data that shows people do read "SJW" books. From his post:

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Tor), 1,800 copies.
The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (Tor), 1,900 copies.
Skin Game by Jim Butcher (Roc), 94,000 copies.
Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos (Amazon's 47North imprint), 2,360 copies.
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie, (Orbit US; Orbit UK), 8,000 copies.
Monster Hunter Nemesis by Larry Correia (Baen) 6,100 copies.
Trial by Fire by Charles E. Gannon (Baen), 1,373 copies.
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor), 7,669 copies.
Coming Home by Jack McDevitt (Ace), 3,311.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I was directed to look at Larry's 'open letter' - I commend you for trying but jezz that's a toxic lot in there.

I basically take issue with one of his first positions:

"I started this campaign a few years ago because I believed that the awards were politically biased, and dominated by a few insider cliques."

He might believe this, but there's just no evidence that it is the case. Which is a bit of a problem, and this comes back to his bruised ego at never having had a nod even though he's very successful. Well, gosh, that NEVER happens.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

"Very Successful" might be a bit of an overstatement when his newest book has sold fewer copies than Ancillary Sword.

OTOH, if he's "very successful" then so is Ann Leckie, and she has every right to be on the ballot and every right to her previous Hugo win.

And if she's only selling so well because of her previous Hugo win, then people DO still buy books that win the Hugo, and his contention that it has lost prestige is BS.

47 North

[(Anonymous)]

How shocking that a 47 North title shows such poor numbers on BookScan. That's like judging Ford Taurus sales by how many of them got rung up at Chevy dealerships. ;)

(I type this with wry amusement as I'm sitting in said author's house at the moment. Apparently earned-out advances and steady royalties'll pay for an indecent amount of remodeling. Who knew?)

Re: 47 North

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

The point, my anonymous friend from New Hampshire, is that it's not like Kloos or Corriea are selling an order of magnitude more than Leckie or Ken Liu. Rather, with the exception of Jim Butcher, they all appear to be bog-standard midlist writers.

Re: 47 North

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, didn't mean to be Anonymous, just don't have an LJ account and didn't want to make one.

This is Tam from View From The Porch. We've pooh-poohed each other (reasonably politely, I thought) in the comments section of my blog before.

Re: 47 North

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

No problems - thanks for dropping by.