Leave it to Twitter to solve a best-seller mystery! No, not the latest riveting crime thriller, but an actual discrepancy on the New York Times’ YA Best-Sellers list ranking,Vulturereports.
Still lost? Here: someone scammed their way to the #1 NYT spot. The YA community uncovered the scam and got them off the list. The end.
— Phil Stamper (@stampepk) August 24, 2017
Here’s where it starts: Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give had been sitting pretty at number one for Young Adult Bestseller for a solid 25 weeks, until suddenly it wasn't. The list for the week of September 3 showed it being replaced by something called Handbook for Mortals.
Sure, all’s fair in love and bookselling, and maybe Thomas’ acclaimed novel couldn’t hold the top spot forever, but the flaw Twitter users found and investigated was that no one had really heard of Mortals until it was suddenly at the top, as Pajiba reported. Another YA author, Phil Stamper, was the primary voice in questioning the authenticity of the mysterious book's fast sales, first addressing its publisher, a website called Geek Nation.
I find it... strange that a mediocre website can decide it wants to be a publisher, and one month later hit #1 on the NYT Bestsellers list. pic.twitter.com/RS1UoWl6H4
— Phil Stamper (@stampepk) August 24, 2017
He went on to point out the apparent lack of advertising or press on behalf of the book, and the unlikelihood of so little publicity resulting in bestseller worthy sales.
A book that no one has heard of except for the two niche blogs that covered the GN press release. Sells ~5,000 in the first week? Ok.
— Phil Stamper (@stampepk) August 24, 2017
But wait, the saga continues. According to Vulture, apparently the author, Lani Sarem, is an actress, though with few credits to her name. And her book had already been discussed as a possible movie adaptation. Therefore, as Stamper pointed out, maybe the publishers and those attached to the possible film (like American Pie’s Thomas Ian Nicholas) artificially inflated sales just so they could pitch the movie with the best-seller tagline.
Ah, okay. They couldn't care less about the book. They just want to pitch their film franchise as "based off the #1 NYT Bestselling series"pic.twitter.com/XG1W2hBLig
— Phil Stamper (@stampepk) August 24, 2017
A few anonymous direct messages later, Stamper revealed sources from independent bookstores had received calls about purchasing Mortals in bulk orders, therefore boosting sale numbers. Long story short, Handbook for Mortals has since been removed from the list, and YA Twitter is rejoicing about their real life Nancy Drew sleuthing skills. Honestly, the scheming and discovery behind this story is worthy of a top spot on the best-seller list itself. Or even a movie adaptation…?
IMPORTANT UPDATE: If this debacle gets turned into a movie, who should play me?
— Phil Stamper (@stampepk) August 24, 2017