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Harris books are moving, Hugo culls fraudulent votes, N.K. Jemisin on the literature of survival, and more.
Kamala Harris Book Sales Soaring
A 60,000% increase in book sales means (at least) two things are true: enormous surge in interest and a low starting point. If Harris were selling 1000 copies a week, say, before Biden dropped out and she became the presumptive nominee, a 600x increase (60,000%) would mean 600,000 unit sales per week after. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that is not the rate she is selling at—probably something more like 100-200 copies a week before the surge. (Remember, most books don’t sell that many copies, especially ones that have been out for a while).
Someone Tried to Cast Fraudulent Votes in the Hugo Award, Was Very Bad At It
The Hugos have had their fair share of problems, but the latest headache isn’t their fault. After noticing odd voting patterns, the Hugos decided to throw out more than 300 votes for a single author. The patterns? The kind of things my kids wouldn’t expect to get away with: “These included voters with almost identical surnames, with just one letter changed and placed in alphabetical order, and some whose names were ‘translations of consecutive numbers’.” The author being voted for has not been disqualified, as there is not evidence they were involved. That sounds right to me unless the author’s name is Cheater McFraudFace, which is the level of sophistication we are dealing with here.
We Need Speculative Fiction Now More Than Ever
N.K. Jemisin’s introduction to a forthcoming reissue of Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy caught me with a line that comes after Jemisin confesses becoming a “jaded reader of late.” Instead of the escapism of some kinds of reading, she finds herself looking for something else: “What I’ve found myself seeking instead are philosophies of entropy and survival—that is, fiction that addresses multifaceted decay and the psychology needed to survive it.” These are stories not of escape, but of remaining—survival, rather than triumph. Compelling idea.
And my pick of the day from Book Riot’s own line-up:
From the list:
“One last heist” is an excellent trope in the mystery and thriller genre for many reasons, starting with the fact that the stakes are already built into the premise: everything is riding on this one last event in a do-or-die way. Now the why, the crew involved, the specifics of the heist, and the setting and time period leave plenty of room for authors to think outside of the box as much as they want. There can be a focus on plot and fast-paced action, a deeper dive into the character’s lives in order to explore what lead them to need to commit this one final crime — or a good blend of both.