rnoachi replied to your link “Handbook for Mortals’ Pulled From ‘New York Times’ YA Best-seller…”

What’s going on omfg

LMAOOO. All right Ima try and explain this succinctly as possible. Basically this random-ass ‘young adult’ book, ‘Handbook for Mortals,’ hit the NYT Bestseller List on the #1 Spot for the Hardcover Young Adult Category this morning. Only problem is that literally NO ONE had ever heard of this book before, like nada marketing, publicity, etc. Zilch. It was supposedly published by a company, GeekNation who only announced their publishing arm back in July. 

To hit the Bestseller list, the book would have had to sold at least 5,000~ copies within the first week, but a few people were quick to point out a major discrepancy where the book was literally out of stock everywhere in all major retailers, like legit you couldn’t find it on B&N, Amazon, and so on.  

YA Twitter basically crowd-sourced an investigation where a few anonymous booksellers revealed that they had gotten calls first asking if they were NYT-reporting bookstores, and then received bulk orders of the book but not caring when the books arrived. Soooo essentially what happened was that this book scammed it’s way on to the top of the NYT Bestseller List by figuring out which bookstores reported sales to the NYT (to determine what hits the bestsellers list, the NYT’s methodology takes a sample from various bookstores, and this supposedly changes every week). They then ordered thousands of copies of the book from those stores and only those stores - and by doing so, this was all a scheme in the hopes of driving the book to the top of the bestseller list. 

The main impetus for hitting the bestseller list was for getting a better chance to have a movie adaptation of the book made with a label like ‘#1 NYT Bestselling Book!’ which would have made it more appealing to potential investors. Butttt all of this was discovered and the NYT sent out a revision where they removed the book on the list a few hours ago. 

Someone also compared an excerpt of the book to an excerpt from ‘My Immortal,’ so now there’s a conspiracy theory that the author, Lani Sarem, is actually the author behind that fanfic. She’s also a former music manager who worked with bands like Blues Traveler, and the official Blues Traveler account weighed in and claimed that she was fired for ‘pulling these kind of stunts.’ 

And IN ADDITION to all this craziness, you had the bizarre emergence of random early-2000s celebrities linked to all of this - Lani is apparently JC Chasez’s (from N Sync) cousin who promoted the book on his twitter, and the co-founder of GeekNation (the publishing company behind this book) is Clare Kramer, who portrayed Glory on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and actor Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie, Rookie of the Year) was allegedly involved and planning to star in an eventual movie adaptation.

So, yeah that’s what happened in the last 12 hours of YA Twitter lol. 

This is the wildest thing and I love every minute of it.

#also let me be super fuckin real with you here #if we discover that ‘my immortal’ was written by jc chasez’s cousin #i will immediately expire and ASCEND TO A HIGHER PLANE OF EXISTENCE (via @actualvampireang)

Don’t forget about those who come in the midst of a fandom war. 

Accuracy at its best

Coming into a really old fandom and finding out that they’re still partying like it’s 1966. 

Reblog for last GIF and great justice

clint and coulson: [literally interact for about 2 minutes, not even face to face]

fandom:

tony and rhodey: [have been best friends since college, care deeply for each other, stand by each other through thick and thin]

fandom:

“why aren’t u talking abt this one Problematic thing involving that actor/show u like??”

listen. i am tired. im putting down my pitchfork. i’ll acknowledge that thing was bad if it was but im tired of vilifying ppl for their mistakes just bc they’re famous. i want to enjoy things. i want Peace

For a long time I was second guessing everything I liked because they did this or that wrong, the actors did this, the writers did that, they left out this or ignored that… It’s just too much.

It’s just so tiring. Acknowledge where they can do better, but give yourself a break for the things you like. No one is perfect and you can like things that aren’t perfect.

Can we slap this post on the front page and leave it there forever please

1) Recontextualization - the production of vignettes, short stories, and novels that seek to fill in the gaps in broadcast narratives and suggest additional explanations for particular actions.

2) Expanding the series timeline - the production of vignettes, short stories, novels that provide background history of characters, etc., not explored in broadcast narratives or suggestions for future developments beyond the period covered by the broadcast narrative.

3) Refocalization - this occurs when fan writers move the focus of attention from the main protagonists to secondary figures. For example, female or black characters are taken from the margins of a text and given centre stage.

4) Moral realignment - a version of refocalization in which the moral order of the broadcast narrative is inverted (the villains become the good guys). In some versions the moral order remains the same but the story is now told from the point of view of the villains.

5) Genre shifting - characters from broadcast science fiction narratives, say, are relocated in the realms of romance or the Western, for example.

6) Cross-Overs - characters from one television programme are introduced into another. For example, characters from Doctor Who may appear in the same narrative as characters from Star Wars.

7) Character dislocation - characters are relocated in new narrative situations, with new names and new identities. 

8) Personalization - the inserted of the writer into a version of their favourite television programme. For example, I could write a short story in which I am recruited by the Doctor to travel with him in the TARDIS on a mission to explore what has become of the Manchester United in the twenty-fourth century. (However, as Jenkins points out, many in the fan culture discourage this subgenre of fan writing.)

9) Emotional intensification - the production of what are called “hurt-comfort” stories in which favourite characters, for example, experience emotional crisis.

10) Eroticization - stories that explore the erotic side of a character’s life. Perhaps the best known of this subgenre of fan writing is “slash” fiction, so called because it depicts same-sex relationships (as in Kirk/Spock,etc.)

- Henry Jenkins Textual Poachers pg 162-177

I still have that book. It probably was one of the first academic studies that took fandom seriously.

Earlier today I made a reference to “Backstroke of the West”, and when I looked it up I saw that the original post was made in 2005, which means that a good chunk of people on here might be too young to remember it. So consider this post a public service. 

The following was originally posted here: 

6.07.2005

episode iii, the backstroke of the west

i saw revenge of the sith last weekend at a local theater with my friend joe who was in town on business. it was much better than the first two movies and a fitting end (err.. middle) to the star wars saga.

the next day i was walking past my friendly dvd salesperson and decided to check out revenge of the sith. i was assured the quality was good and for 7rmb why not give it a shot.

aside from the counters on the top of the screen and a distorted perspective it was ok- not high quality but watchable. the captions were a hilarious surprise- a direct english translation of the chinese interpretation of what the script was saying. it varied from being somewhat close to the script to being ‘far far away’….

amazingly enough, the beginning scroll is mistranslated even though the words are right there on the screen.

star war (just one)

‘the backstroke of the west’ is the english translation of the chinese title.

anakin: “this is where the fun begins”

obi wan: “let them pass between us”

anonymous doomed fighter pilot: “they’re all over me”

Keep reading

Very important fandom history.

I’m CRYING. I’d never seen this before. According to @persian-slipper‘s tags, this is the origin of “do not want”.

THE ACTUAL ORIGIN OF DO NOT WANT!!