Tag Archives: Sad Puppies

BOOK BOMB! Novellas from the Sad Puppies Slate!

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Today we are Book Bombing the three suggested novellas from the Sad Puppies slate. These are novellas that the Evil Legion of Evil thinks are great, and should be considered for fancy awards. No gimmicks, no BS, just awesome stuff.

How a Book Bomb works is that we try to get as many people to buy them off of Amazon in the same day. Because they have a rolling average best seller list that updates hourly, this causes the book to move up the list. The higher it gets, the more people outside the Book Bomb see it, and check it out too. Success breeds success, and best of all, the author GETS PAID.

And all authors should have GET PAID on their mission statement.

Throughout the day I’ll update the sales rankings. This is Very Special Book Bomb because someone accused me and Brad of trying to get people to vote without reading the works. On the contrary, that misses the point. These are good, so we want you to read them, and if you don’t read them, how does the author GET PAID?

First up, John C. Wright, who I think is one of the greatest wordsmiths alive. The man is brilliant.

One Bright Star to Guide Them [Kindle Edition]
by John C Wright

OneBrightStar
**********

Our next recommendation is Tom Kratman, who makes me look like a big softie. He’s also a bad ass writer, and I think this is one of the best things he’s ever done.

Big Boys Don’t Cry[Kindle Edition]
by Tom Kratman
BigBoysDontCry

**********
On our  third Sad Puppies novella nominee we ran into an issue. Our nominated story by Arlan Andrews was originally published in a magazine that we couldn’t sell on Amazon. Brad contacted the author, and he was kind enough to say that he would be willing to email a free copy to anybody who asked him for it.

If you would like a free copy of the Sad Puppies recommended story, send a message to arlan@thingsto.com and he will give it to you.

However nice that is of him, that does not make the author GET PAID, so here is something that he does have available for sale on Amazon that you can try out in addition to the free one.

Other Heads and Other Tales[Kindle Edition]
by Arlan Andrews Sr
OtherHeads
**********

Right now the stories are at the following ranks:

One Bright Star to Guide Them: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,731 Paid in Kindle Store
Big Boys Don’t Cry: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,018 Paid in Kindle Store
Flow: No idea, it is free. Go get it.
And the non-Sad Puppies, but author should get paid entry:
Other Heads: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,337 Paid in Kindle Store

EDIT: to add, I forgot to say, please tell your friends. Repost, reblog, tweet, whatever it is you are into. The key to Book Bombs is spreading the word. Thank you. 🙂

EDIT 2: Well, apparently Amazon changed its methods, so after a whole day of the rank not moving at all, late last night (after everybody quit looking at bestseller lists) they finally started updating, so, thanks a lot Amazon. If you’d left it normal I could have sold a couple hundred more books for you.

But after that, long after everybody in the US had gone to sleep, Amazon FINALLY started updating the day’s sales. And this Book Bomb was a massive success

For Wright

For Kratman

And for Andrews, keeping in mind this isn’t even the work we’re pushing for the Hugo nom

Again, if you are a Sad Puppy voter and you’d like to check out Flow, email Arlan at that address above and he’ll give you a copy to read so you can nominate intelligently.

So, top 500 on ALL of Amazon, for works of SHORT FICTION (which don’t sell nearly as well as books), plus #1 in their genres (except for John, who is up against the cultural institution of Harry Potter!), and I heard the actual stats from Tom and John’s publisher last night, and damn, we moved a shit ton of books. 😀  No. Seriously. Between the two of them it was like 20 really good book signings, or probably 40 average book signings.

This is going to get its own blog post when I have a chance, but I want you to think of something for a moment. I was accused of trying to get the Sad Puppies volunteers to vote stupidly, without reading the works, because I never explicitly came out and specifically said READ BEFORE NOM, (and the reason I didn’t say that was because it was so blatantly obvious and we were making fun of the SJWs for doing just that so I didn’t think I needed to).

But now, with yesterday’s Book Bomb, we not only encouraged you to read our slate, but we made it so that these novellas are now the most widely read items in that category, by far.  Suck on that, SJWs.

And more importantly, the authors GET PAID.

EDIT 3: Because it keeps going up, so why not? I told you guys, once you get them up there high enough, they’re seen by new eyes who weren’t part of the Book Bomb to begin with.

One Bright Star to Guide Them

Big Boys Don’t Cry

Other Heads

EDIT AGAIN: What? Still going up? UNPOSSIBLE!  Other Heads  dropped 10 whole spaces, so I’ll just leave the above cut and paste for that one’s high mark, but let’s be honest now I’m just documenting these out of spite. 🙂

One Bright Star to Guide Them

Big Boys Don’t Cry

Next BOOK BOMB this Wednesday – Awesome Novellas from the Sad Puppies Slate

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Mark your calenders, our next Book Bomb will be this Wednesday.

My goal is to get the stuff on our Sad Puppies suggestion list out there in front of as many people as possible. If you’re unfamiliar with my Book Bombs, that’s where we get as many people as possible to buy a book on Amazon in the same day. Since their bestseller lists update hourly, through the day the book will move higher and higher. Success breeds success, and the higher it gets, more new people see it and check it out.

Only two of our three suggestions are available on Amazon (the last was in a magazine), but the author has said that he would give a free copy to anyone who emailed him, which is pretty darned cool. So I’ll post that info as well.Then I’ll post one of his things that is on Amazon, that way he can GET PAID. 🙂

Sad Puppies 3 Update 2.1 Addendum to Prior Update

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So, after my last blog post a dude who has 45 Hugo nominations (no that is not a typo FORTY FIVE) became very cross with me for saying that the the Hugos are broken. Now, since he has won twice as many Hugos as Robert Heinlein I can’t possibly imagine why he would be biased in favor of the current broken ass system, but I can only assume that his motives are absolutely pure.

While searching for something else to condemn me for, this stalwart journalist decided that I had never *specifically* declared that people should read the suggested works before nominating them, and thus am a very bad person.

After he posted in the comments of the last update, I responded with a few quotes where I did encourage people to read for themselves, form their own opinions, choose for themselves, and basically how you Wrong Kind of Fans are just going to do whatever the hell you feel like anyway.

I made a joke that I also never specifically told Sad Puppies supporters not to set fire to small animals, so obviously, Larry Correia wants you to burn small animals… However this might not have been clear enough for Glyer-45-Hugos, so I’d better clarify. Do not set fire to small animals. That would be mean and bad.

So allow me to go on the record about other things that are so stupidly obvious that I shouldn’t have to say them, but since we are dealing with ridiculous, lying SJWs, I’d better be specific:

You should wash your hands after going to the bathroom.

You should read stuff before nominating it for awards. 

You should look both ways before crossing the street.

So there you go, Glyer-50-Hugos (I figured what the hell? Let’s round up!) Thanks to your hard hitting journalism, the nefarious Larry Correia has now gone on the record about some painfully obvious stuff.

I apologize for not loading down our first blog posts on this subject with a bunch of asinine disclaimers and trigger warnings. After Brad and I get back from LTUE the next thing we had planned were blog posts about the works we selected and why, to encourage people to  read them. The nominations don’t close for over a month, giving people plenty of time to familiarize themselves with the suggested works.

And while Brad is doing those posts, I am going to be running a series of Book Bombs to try and expose as many people as possible to these authors we picked. I’ve already been in contact with some of them about seeing if they can’t put their books on sale to coincide with the Book Bomb in order to pick up even more readers. That gets the authors more exposure but more importantly, that means they sell books and get paid (unlike Glyer).

There you go. Glyer-50-Hugos has gotten the International Lord of Hate on the record talking about controversial things like hand washing. If he keeps up this hard hitting journalism maybe he’ll score himself a few more Hugos.

Sad Puppies 3 Update

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Last week we released the Sad Puppies suggestions. Predictably, that caused some outrage. Then I asked for people to help out by providing links showing how SJWs operate. More outrage. Then the Breitbart article came out. Wow. That was fun.

I’ve been seeing a lot of criticisms of Sad Puppies. Now, my original plan was to have our eloquent spokesmanatee, Wendell, do an in depth interview with respected news man, Brian Williams, but Williams backed out of the interview at the last minute for some reason.

Sick burn, dude.
Sick burn, dude.

So instead, I’ve thrown together some criticisms and narratives that the SJWs have been using and my brief response to each.

Sad Puppies represents the “Fringe” and “bigots with crazy beliefs”.  

Wait… Did my people nominate Requires Hate or a guy who publically supports NAMBLA while I wasn’t looking? Oh wait… That was the GOOD SIDE.

File 770 has written a lot about how Larry Correia is the worst person ever.

Headline: Man with 28 Hugo nominations thinks the system is perfectly fine.

Some people put on the Sad Puppies suggested slate have removed themselves.

Yes. This isn’t surprising. Considering the heat and concern trolling many of the suggested authors have been getting, I’m surprised it has only been a few.

If you’ll note, despite the allegations to the contrary, our suggestions are politically diverse. Of the ones who have dropped out, I do believe they have all been liberals.

We made an effort to contact everyone we put on beforehand to warn them what was coming. Apparently we missed two of these. One was added the day we put up the suggestions because a couple of posters pointed them out, and they truly are excellent and talented, but we’d forgotten about them during our initial brainstorming.

I can’t blame them for dropping out. And none of you should either. The ELoE talked about this a lot before putting together a slate. They have all personally experienced what happens when you draw the SJW contingent’s wrath. It isn’t pretty.

And we’ve already replaced them. Here is the updated slate of suggestions: https://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/sad-puppies-3-the-2015-hugo-slate/

Privilege!  

Says a SJW who grew up in the suburbs, and attended some of the most expensive schools in America, to the guy who grew up milking cows, and worked his way through Utah State, unironically.

Puppies are color blind. (No… really, come to think of it they are!)

We don’t care who you are or where you came from, as long as your writing is awesome.

 

Log Rolling! Vote Buying! Ballot Stuffing! Sock Puppets! Taxidermy!

Okay, I made up that last one to see if you were paying attention.

Nope, sorry. They’re actual fans who ponied up some money to vote. They’re just the wrong kinds of fans.

 

Sad Puppies supporters registering in record numbers.
Sad Puppies supporters registering in record numbers.

Sad Puppies is all about mumble mumble racism.

Nope. We’re not about excluding anybody. That’s them. We’re about including more people.

Oh yeah! Vox Day is literally Hitler Satan!

He’s not even on the Sad Puppies slate this year, but he still lives rent free in their heads.

Last year I liked a story written by a guy SJWs think is racist. Could a comment made a few years ago by Vox Day to Nora Jemisin be seen as racist? Yep. Has Nora Jemisin said a whole bunch of racist things herself leading up to that and then a bunch after? Yep.

So, to attempt to put this into SJW terms, did a Person of Color (man, I hate that stupid term) aggress against another Person of Color who was also committing aggressions? I think so, but I got an accounting degree instead of gender studies, so I’m not sure.

Have the SJWs ever nominated individuals who have said or done controversial things for prestigious awards? Ha!

Have far worse and more insulting things been said about people like me or Sarah Hoyt by beloved Social Justice Warriors, with zero condemnation from their side? Oh hell yeah. But double standards are cool.

In reality, Sad Puppies don’t give a crap about what box an author checks. We care if they entertain us.

Damien Walter said Larry Correia just needs a hug.

Uh… Hugged by a confused “lonely Brit” who moved to Thailand searching for someone to love him? Naw. I’m cool. Thanks.

Larry Correia *claims* to be speaking to reporters!

I don’t know why it was so far-fetched for them to think that I was actually talking to reporters since Sad Puppies 2 got mentioned in the USA Today.

He’s gathering SJW names! Persecution!

I’d already sent a bunch of information on to the Breitbart guys to look into last week, and the only reason I posted was to gather more links showing how the run of the mill SJWs behaved. (feel free to go through them if you want to decide for yourself).

But even when they knew I was collecting quotes, they couldn’t help but provide more.

Okay, so there was a news report about Sad Puppies, but Breitbart isn’t a *real* media outlet.  

Oh man, hopefully someday I’ll be able to break out huge and get in Salon or the HuffPo!

I like exposing bullies. SJWs operate by accusing their ideological opponents of all sorts of horrible things. The accusations are usually crap, but people are scared of being accused. Bullies are only powerful when nobody challenges them. Expose them, and their endless accusations lose strength.

So the SJWs will dismiss this article, but in truth they’re terrified of being exposed. As their accusations lose power more authors say to themselves screw the thought police, I’m going to write what I want. Then somebody somewhere might be having fun wrong, and SJWs can’t abide that.

My favorite part was seeing a former SFWA president in the comment section praising the article and agreeing about the importance of defending free speech.

This is all about Correia’s huge ego and his personal desire to win a Hugo.

Which is why I tried to back out, and when the ELoE outvoted me, we still made sure to suggest me up against some of the best writers alive, including one of the most popular authors on Earth and what is probably his single best book.

Seriously, guys, nominate Jim Butcher. (Hell, I’m voting for Butcher first!)  The fact that he’s been ignored by the Hugos all this time is telling. I’m not joking. The man writes circles around most of the usual nominees. Gannon, Kloos, and Anderson also have amazing books in there. All are remarkable authors. Read the books and decide for yourself.

You should work within the system. The Sad Puppies method of asking outsiders to get involved is uncouth and barbaric.

Funny how that works, isn’t it?

Get them in a private conversation and most authors will admit that the Hugos are broken. Some are cool with it because it is broken in their favor. Others won’t say anything because they didn’t think there was anything they could do about it, and they knew the first group would make their lives miserable if they tried. So things stay the same or get increasingly asinine. Then when somebody does try to do something, they’ve rocked the boat, and are bad.

I noted that both Elizabeth Moon and David Gerrold both commented last week about the badness of Sad Puppies. That’s great. We are political polar opposites, but I think they’re talented and I’ve enjoyed works from both of them.

Here’s the thing. Whether you think what I’m doing is horrible or not, it has actually drawn attention to the same clique of rabid types that actively attacked both of you. Signing a petition for free speech is great. What happened next? They dismissed you as old, white, racist, neo-cons and went back to scaring the shit out of all the authors who don’t have entrenched established careers.

So you might not like me or my friends coloring outside the lines, but we actually believe in free speech, freedom of artistic expression, and not sabotaging the careers of the people who disagree with us. So if that means we need to flip over some tables at the country club, so be it.

Fandom is inclusive! So we have to exclude you!

I’m trying to think of how to explain this one, but I’ve been seeing it pop up a lot. On one hand, Fandom (as in the crowd that votes for the Hugos) claims to be all inclusive, but on the other hand, some of them get very upset when a new group of people who are also fans show up and participate. Because they’re the wrong kind of fans.

I’ve even seen some of these people go so far as to admit that the Hugo is actually a popularity contest just for them, which is why we are bad for meddling in their club. Okay. I can actually respect that, because at least it is honest.

However, considering it was me saying exactly that a few years ago that started all this. I went to the Hugos and came out saying it was a biased popularity contest for one little clique, and I was condemned for it, because the Hugos are all about quality, and art, and greatness, and represent all of fandom and sunshine and happiness.

I said nope, let me show you how it really is, and that’s what brings us to where we are today.

Now, voting for quality art is still true for many of the regular voters, and they take it very seriously. In fact, they cherish it and consider voting honestly a responsibility. I’ve got nothing but respect for them. I can even understand them seeing something like Sad Puppies as offensive, uncouth, even vulgar. And I can appreciate that.

But get them in private and start going through some of the message ridden dreck and see what they think. Most of these people have better things to do than to collaborate and nominate in blocks. So when the finals roll around they get to choose between Angsty Message Fic 1 and Angsty Message Fic 2. They’re not outnumbered by SJWs, but they’ve certainly been outmaneuvered.

We’re doing the same thing the SJWs have been doing for years. The difference is that it is safe to condemn the Sad Puppies contingent. We’re not going to sabotage their careers or slander them.

Sad Puppies wants to burn it all down.

Not really. Maybe that’s true for some of us, but let me give you a peek behind the curtain. We all have our different motivations. We don’t march in ideological lockstep.

I’ve explained my reasons repeatedly. When one of their beloved leaders called me Mr. Free Speech At All Costs they meant it as an insult. I took it as a compliment. I proved my point last year about the bias and was happy to walk away.

Brad Torgersen on the other hand is an idealist. He bleeds geek. He wants the Hugos to mean something again. He wants them to be special, and for the general reading public to look at them and say “Award Winning? Holy moly, then it must be good!” Brad wants the Hugos to be relevant to everyone. He dragged me back into this because he thinks Sad Puppies can actually make a difference.

As the mushy moderate of the Evil Legion of Evil, he’s like a Druid, trying to bring balance back to nature or something.

Here is a good article from Brad:

https://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2015/02/07/sad-puppies-some-responses-to-the-fallout/

EDIT: to add, Sarah went and did another meme post. 🙂

http://accordingtohoyt.com/2015/02/09/when-duck-noises-fail-me/