from the and-now-for-something-completely-different dept.
Spotted on HackerNews is a link to the story of I, Libertine, a book which made the New York Times Bestseller List despite its non-existence following a hoax co-ordinated by Jean "Shep" Shepherd in the 1950's.
...here's the thing: in Shep's time, despite its name, the criteria for making the list involved more than just book sales. It included customer requests for and questions about books to book sellers. So if a retailer had a stack of a particular book that wasn't selling, he could gin up enough queries about it to get the title included on the best seller list, which then made people go out and buy it.
Shep saw through this hypocrisy and ranted about it at length one night. In a burst of inspiration, he speculated that if enough people requested the same title of a book that didn't actually exist, it could indeed make the coveted New York Times Best Seller List.
...
by early summer 1956, the book that didn't exist made The New York Times Best Seller List ... and kept inching upward on it. One literary gossip columnist even wrote in a leading newspaper, "Had a delightful lunch the other day with Frederick R. Ewing and his charming wife, Marjorie."And the whole time this was going on, Shep and his Night People listeners were laughing themselves silly. There was never any secret to it; it was a hoax openly discussed and pulled off right on the public airwaves.
Original HackerNews discussion thread.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @03:10AM
The Discipline of Market Leaders [wikipedia.org], a (real) business book published in the 1980s, which is still in print. [amazon.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @07:22AM
First publication date according to your list was 1995.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday August 03 2015, @11:42AM
That particular scam is still around today: Since they now look for thousands of books purchased by a few to make it look like there's more interest than there really is, nowadays they pay people $5 or something above the purchase price to buy the book. Poof, New York Times Bestseller!
This is particularly common for political books where the apparent popularity of the book is the primary purpose, e.g. politicians' pre-campaign books or media personalities trying to bolster their "personal brand".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @03:53AM
This blurb makes no sense.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Monday August 03 2015, @04:07AM
Which part of it are you struggling with?
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday August 03 2015, @04:36AM
Obviously not reading TFA.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 3, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Monday August 03 2015, @07:53AM
A summary should make sense by itself without having to read TFA. That's rather the point of summaries.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Monday August 03 2015, @05:07AM
it's an anon, so probably literacy in general. ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @08:51AM
You mean the problem is that people posting as Anonymous Coward are in general too literate to be able to overlook such problems in the summary?
(Score: 2) by quadrox on Monday August 03 2015, @05:27AM
For a start, who are the persons being mentioned? Is he the fictional author? There is zero explanation whatsoever as to what makes this part relevant/interesting.
(Score: 4, Informative) by tonyPick on Monday August 03 2015, @05:52AM
Ah - good point, and I should probably have cut a bit more of the section quoted which does need the context. My Bad.
"Frederick R. Ewing" was the author of the fake book, and also did not exist. The relevant bit of TFA:
(Score: 3, Insightful) by skater on Monday August 03 2015, @11:18AM
I was able to infer that fact from the context, but I think inferences are a lost art these days.
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Tuesday August 04 2015, @06:32PM
RTFA. Problem solved.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Spamalope on Monday August 03 2015, @09:52AM
Revising the summary to say 'I, Libertine by Frederick R. Ewing, a book which...' would clarify things a bit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @07:30AM
"If you can't win em, join em"! :)
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday August 04 2015, @12:14AM
"If you can't beat 'em, beat 'em up." -- Fred Roggin
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by jdavidb on Monday August 03 2015, @02:41PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 1) by gznork26 on Monday August 03 2015, @04:59PM
I was an avid listener to Shep on WOR radio in NYC.
Khipu were Turing complete.