JillBearup
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The NYT "Bestsellers" List...Isn't?
🕑 Added 2025-12-12 13:07:58 +0000 UTCWelcome to publishing! It makes no sense here. But never mind.
Comments
Ekij
"Capitalism is the free trade of goods or services between two willing parties." what exactly about that sucks? Perhaps you means "corporatism" rather than "capitalism"? Be sure you're fighting the correct enemy before you carelessly destroy an ally.
Ekij
It's 2025. Newspapers are misleading people. People are still surprised by this. Humanity is doomed.
Charles Barnard
Trust & verify. Always.
SendPenguins
May I introduce you to the history behind the "classic," Naked Came The Stranger, which spent 13 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list in 1969, with a writing credit to Penelope Ashe? Check out the Wikipedia page, if you don't know the story behind the book, but it's. . . almost exactly what you asked for. That the NYT Bestseller list was somewhat dodgy has been known for a long, long time. But if you repeat something often enough and loudly enough, some people will start believing it. *sigh*
Elysia
Came for Jill. Stayed for the Princess Bride references. "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up."
Have another taco
Brian Brushwood and the folks at Modern Rogue (Youtube) decided they wanted to see if they count dethrone 50 Shades on the Amazon Bestseller list with crowd-sourced NSFW slop. Short answer: YES! Is the NYT list any better curated than that? I mean, I don't know that horny slop is guaranteed to take down anything meaningfully well-written but β¦ um, yeah, it's probably doable.
Alex Taylor
Wow
Jill Bearup
Oh no, I was USA today π The NYT would NEVER π
Ann Brookens
Okay...so you making the NYTIMES Bestseller's List is even MORE of an honor than we all thought because you were HAND PICKED!!!
Brenton Clark
Wow! Color me educated!
Jim Sanderson
Personally, and I admit that numerous uncomfortable recent realizations are coloring the intensity of my reaction, I think that this is just another example of a respected institution being hollow. As a culture, we claim to value honesty, but in practice, our commitment to the truth is convenient at best. I'm being to believe that only a fool trusts anyone or anything.
Hongry
Capitalism sucks.
John Hardy
Sooo ... being an NYT Bestseller really means that you sold a bunch of copies to the NYT Editorial Staff????
Hell3Quin
Wow! I hate it.
Cassandra
I was waiting for the Princess Bride reference as soon as βLet me explainβ happened.
Lisa
I did know some of this, but it always bears repeating! And, man, it is an odd world of publishing!
Jill Bearup
I think it means 'boy, this sure had a bunch of bulk orders, isn't THAT funny?' which...you know what I just said the same thing you did but with extra words XD
SendPenguins
Snobs will snob. Of course, it's worth remembering that Certain Parties Who Shall Remain Unnamed found many ways to make sure that L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth series got on the list for each iteration. That rather sums up my lack of faith in the utility of the list as any kind of marker of a work's quality.
shift shift
And, IIRC, if the title has a dagger next to it it means there was enough dodgy looking sales that something is Definitely Up with the sales numbers but we're still including it.
Andrew Denton
I mean, that feels like bribery with extra steps.
