Discontent amongst the Puppies

[james_davis_nicoll]

Discord between at least one Puppy and Baen. The obvious test is to buy one of the dead books and see if the sale shows up in their next statement.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

If all publishers are low-balling sales results, then Scalzi is selling even more than we think...

[jayblanc]

I'm Shocked! Shocked!

[martianmooncrab]

that is very odd indeed, I have writer friends and I hear about their indie sales on 30 plus year old books, they do sell, so six montns with no sales whatsoever? sniff sniff.. hmmmm

[agharta75]

What would John Galt do?

[al_zorra]

In what universe is it that people who publish a low selling genre novel find that the key to a teaching gig? hmmmmmmmmm, either in These Days or in the Days Before covid-19.

[rezendi]

Perhaps worth noting that Chris Anderson's Long Tail theory was interesting, somewhat intuitive, and a great story ... but appears to have been pretty conclusively disproven. Instead, "product variety is likely to increase demand concentration." (Italics mine.)

https://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/2017/is-tom-cruise-threatened-an-empirical-study-of-the-impact-of-product-variety-on-demand-concentration/

cf also https://medium.com/before-the-dot/the-long-tail-when-a-famous-theory-got-almost-all-wrong-12d3c6eb0de9

[rezendi]

Also worth noting: maybe it's not the publishers; maybe it's the recommendation algorithms. If most sales came from people browsing online, as opposed to specifically searching for author or title, then a tweak to recommendation algorithms can have the effect of moving all copies from bookstore shelves to storage out back; still technically available for sale, but nobody's just picking them up.