this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2024
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Hillbilly Elegy was a NY Times bestseller.
You can hate on the guy, but facts are facts.
Except that list gets manipulated all the time. It's a known practice to order shit tons of your own book, get on the list for a week, and hand them out (or resell them) later.
Ok, I accept that, but it inevitably leads to the next question of "what metric would you accept to call oneself a bestselling authour?"
By definition, bestselling is what it is. The question is "does bestselling mean they're a good author?" And that's what we have reviews for.
Probably something better than "it sold more than 1000 copies in a week". Especially when the author can indirectly buy all those copies with not that much money, just to claim the best selling title
I despise the guy as much as sanity allows, but he actually went out and accomplished something.
I think it's important that we see the enemy as they are and don't get caught up in mindless hatred for hatred's sake.
I agree in principal. But my comment was made to point out that the achievement of "bestselling author" is just not as meaningful as it once was. Many people like him cheat to get on the bestselling list so they can put that on the book and it's as informative on the book jacket as "made with 100% beef". Seems nice, but doesn't actually mean much.
Politicians use ghost writers for their books. All he accomplished was having enough money to "write" a book. The NYT bestsellers list is, as others have pointed out, very manipulated. It's been a 'joke' for a long long time that people just buy their own books for the numbers. Political parties especially buy them in bulk to boost the numbers.
Every politician has a book. It's part of the process, or the culture. You're not a "real" politician if you don't have a book. Even insane people like Marjorie Taylor Greene has a book.
It's not an accomplishment. It's just paying someone to write something for you.
It just means it sold a number of copies, there is zero judgement on the content. Sometimes a campaign will launder money directly to a candidate by purchasing many copies of that candidate's book to give away. It is somehow legal.
He did it before he became a Veep candidate.
Before he was a politician?
Yes. The book itself was published in 2016, was on the bestseller list for over a year, and he basically renounced like 75% of the contents when he started running for his first political office in 2022.
It was the book's success that made him a politician, not his political connections making his book a success.
Which book isn't?
Literally millions of books haven't. Have you ever actually been in a bookstore or library?
It's like saying every song has won a Grammy or every athlete has gone to the Olympics.
It was a joke about how NYT bestsellers list is rigged good lord calm your buttcheeks.