JK Rowling book sales unaffected by transgender views row

submitted by RadioSilence from theguardian.com

all 83 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]11mile_house 83 insightful - 14 fun83 insightful - 13 fun84 insightful - 14 fun -  (1 child)

Did you see Pink News get roasted on Twitter for trying to say her sales were dwindling? Like wow 20 year old books trending on Amazon for the past month. Must really hurt her.

[–]beereadit 43 insightful - 1 fun43 insightful - 0 fun44 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Trans News continue spreading the fake news, nothing new here really.

[–]Lilith_Fair 50 insightful - 5 fun50 insightful - 4 fun51 insightful - 5 fun -  (9 children)

Her sales remained strong even when the whole thing broke out. When they went at her after her Twitter posts, I was checking her Amazon sales ranking and she remained on the top of the Amazon Chart. Like, Harry Potter 1 was No.1 on the chart even on the day this whole thing broke out. Also, Amazon has perfected their system to stop one-star review attacks after Hillary Clinton's book came out a few years ago. I noticed that none of JKR's books had been attacked by Operation One-Star Bomb by the mob.

[–]hermiona52 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I absolutely hate this review-bombing mob. It happened with The Last Jedi and lastly with The Last of Us Part II. I just don't get it. If I don't like something I just move on. And I definitely would never rate something I didn't read/watched/played. I just don't get it.

[–]Lilith_Fair 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's another manifestation of cancel culture. Put enough one-star reviews on a book, movie, or show, and other people will believe the product is so bad, they won't buy it anymore. That's the purpose.

ETA: Never mind, my mistake. You said Goodreads, not Amazon. Goodreads can be pretty awful. A few years ago there were some people there who made it a sport to target authors for bullying. They'd one-star authors and leave bad reviews they want to pick on just to get a reaction from the author. If the author can't help by respond, the mob would jump in and pile on. There was a Guardian article about it. Bizarre and eye-opening. I think that's stopped though.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/18/am-i-being-catfished-an-author-confronts-her-number-one-online-critic

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Right?!? If you haven't read/played/watched it, how can you review it?!?

If you don't like it, don't read/play/watch it. Even better, argue with yourself about why not, and learn more about yourself.

I love original Star Trek. I know I know but it's what it is. I didn't like the new Star Trek reboot movies. So you know what? I stopped watching them. Ooh wow my childhood is still intact.

If Princess Bride ever gets remade I will give it a shot, bc maybe I'll like it. I'll probably not like it. So if that's the case, I'll just dig out the old DVD and watch the first one. Whatever.

Tried to bring hubs around to this perspective with these two examples about me, when he was whining about something or other ruining Star Wars. I had watched the new movies (sequels) and liked them, but whatever. He ended up getting even more whiny so we have never actually talked about episode 9. 🙄

[–]hermiona52 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Exactly. I am a huge SW nerd and I loved TLJ so I think that Episode IX goes against plot and themes of its two predecessors. But you wouldn't find me on the social media whining and raging about it because I don't won't to spoil the fun of people who liked it. I just moved on. It's really not that difficult.

[–]No_ 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Wait really!? I want to know more

[–]worried19 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Her newest book has the woke brigade on Goodreads leaving one-star reviews:

Yeah, on reflection I’m not going to be able to keep reading this. The author keeps doubling down on transphobic rhetoric that’s harmful and I can’t in good conscience enjoy a lighthearted children’s story in that context.

It's currently the most popular review.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Lol at Operation One-Star Bomb. Also you're exactly correct.

[–][deleted] 49 insightful - 2 fun49 insightful - 1 fun50 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

She's an internationally beloved children's author who can afford to literally swim in her own cash. JKR never even said anything hateful, what were they expecting?

[–][deleted] 38 insightful - 3 fun38 insightful - 2 fun39 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

When she first said sex is real, I bought another box set and I already owned her books in ebook format. We have been reading the books since and I finally made the jump to buy some of the merchandise around it.

[–]TangerineRabbit 32 insightful - 1 fun32 insightful - 0 fun33 insightful - 1 fun -  (15 children)

I already had the books in English, so bought a copy of Philosopher's Stone in Irish translation as I'm trying to learn that language. Wanted to make a point of showing support

[–]malleus_maleficarum 17 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 0 fun18 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

They really are great for learning another language. They're familiar enough to get my head around the interpretation/tone aspect of the text, plus they also come in audiobooks for other languages as well, so I can read and listen along.

[–]lavender_menace 11 insightful - 4 fun11 insightful - 3 fun12 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

That’s how I learned English. Reading Harry Potter in original. Thank you Joanne Rowling 😎

[–]Amareldys 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (12 children)

I have them in American English, I should buy them in the original. And FRench and German.

[–]lavender_menace 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

There is a difference between American English and British English? They translate books for US citizens? Mindblowing!

[–]malleus_maleficarum 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The British use the Queen's 'u'. Honour/honor. Neighbour/neighbor. Etc. The Americans threw that 'u' into Boston harbour/harbor and never got it back. Some words like biscuit would be changed to convey the original meaning. Some slang like 'loo' is only British.

[–]marmorsymphata 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I was really upset when I found out! For example, Dudley's first word is supposed to be "Shan't!", not "Won't!"

[–]Amareldys 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes for words like Soccer and Lift

[–]Sineadsiobhan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think only the first, in the US edition, book has American English In terms of the words, not spelling differences. I think she said she wasn’t going to change anything in the later books. I may be wrong.

[–]bellatrixbells 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Wow. Just... Wow.

I'm not sure if this means Americans are supposed to be too dense to figure out foreign slang or if they're just too lazy or self centered. None of those interpretations give them much credit. That's just plain sad.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

There are grammatical differences too. I think parents in America didn’t want to deal with the differences because kids that age are still learning the language technically.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Pfffff. I speak Canadian English, Northern Ontario variety which includes plenty of French of the Northern Ontario variety.

At eleven I read LOTR and Narnia (and a bunch more books) that were English English; come to think of it, many many library books were American English.

All of it improved my vocabulary and made me curious about language. Why were my spelling words mostly like the English English but my grammar was more like American English? That was fun for me!

I remember when HP first came out, hubs and I who both grew up with LOTR (he's Chinese and got through it fine) rolled our eyes hard at the idea there needed to be an American translation!

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I mean I read it in both. I didn’t care. But that’s the reason I was given as to why they had different books for US.

[–]bellatrixbells 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The US is pretty ethnocentric. Personally I think it's sad because I've met many Americans throughout the years who just felt shitty about this. The French do that too though.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Interesting! Having read neither I don't really know. Thanks for your perspective!

[–]MarkTwainiac 22 insightful - 1 fun22 insightful - 0 fun23 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's very significant that this surge in book sales occurred not just when JKR was being widely and unfairly vilified on social media and in the press, but at precisely the time period when she was releasing her latest children's book, The Ickabog, online for free to help people get through lockdown. The print version comes out in the autumn- and she's donating all her royalties and proceeds to charities helping "vulnerable people" affected by COVID-19.

[–]Realwoman 18 insightful - 1 fun18 insightful - 0 fun19 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Interesting, I got an article in my Google feed (inquirer) say the opposite. Why were they lying?

[–]PassionateIntensity 25 insightful - 1 fun25 insightful - 0 fun26 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

To push the trans agenda? It's hard to know what to believe and who to trust when they bald-faced lie to the public like this, but the increased sales numbers are from her publisher. Google and Forbes have both gone full-TRA (I don't understand why).

[–]marmorsymphata 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Google is well known for being vaguely evil, of course it serves them to jump on social movements at any opportunity. Anecdotally, the people who hate Google the most do tend to be those that care about social justice.

[–]TangerineRabbit 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Apparently sales in the US have dropped off, but sales in the UK have increased

[–]stitchedlamb 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Looking at (US)Amazon's book charts right now, she has multiple top 10 books under Teens and two in the SciFi/Fantasy category. I think it would be most author's dream to have a "drop off" like that :D

[–]Marsupial 16 insightful - 1 fun16 insightful - 0 fun17 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Not surprised tbh. She didn't say anything hateful, she was respectful and perfectly reasonable. What she said resonates with the vast, vast, vast majority of people in the world, there's only a very, VERY small subgroup predominantly in the US that are upset about this and most of them weren't going to buy her books anyway.

[–]Bitchcraft 13 insightful - 2 fun13 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 2 fun -  (18 children)

Name one single Boycott ever that worked ....

[–]PassionateIntensity 29 insightful - 1 fun29 insightful - 0 fun30 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Boycotts aren't the issue. I support their right to boycott--but the fact is, they're a small, extreme, loud minority and most people agree with JKR. They don't have the numbers. If they had attempted to do ANY of this political maneuvering democratically, they'd have got nowhere.

[–]Complicated-Spirit 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think they assumed they had the numbers, because they had the money, and thereby the clout. But then when they started screaming “BOYCOTT!!” and then turned around to look upon all their pitchfork-wielding followers, they were shocked to find a fraction of the crowd they expected.

[–]oyasuminasai50 21 insightful - 1 fun21 insightful - 0 fun22 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Goya, Chick-fil-A, Barilla... I mean, feel free to not buy them out of personal principle. But you're naive if you think you'll have a material impact of the sales of these massive brands.

[–]fuckingsealions 18 insightful - 1 fun18 insightful - 0 fun19 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

It's worth it. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts/history-successful-boycotts

[–]Bitchcraft 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I hadn't heard of most of these, thanks!

[–]fuckingsealions 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Np. I think it's important because women are primary buyers for a lot of households and products.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Correct, thanks for posting!

[–]Amareldys 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The bus boycott.

[–]MarkTwainiac 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Name one single Boycott ever that worked ....

Montgomery Alabama bus boycott. Cesar Chavez and UFW grapes boycott. The boycott against South Africa in the 1980s/early 90s...

The boycott of blood diamonds

[–]Classconsciousness 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The bus boycott was very effective because the vast majority of riders were Black. When 75% of your customers hold the power, it's very powerful when they show solidarity and boycott. Though it should be remembered that this was a years long organizing strategy and was implemented at different times and different places with differences in outcome.

The grape boycott was implemented with a backdrop of 5 years of strikes.

National boycotts at this time in America are largely ineffective. The political atmosphere is extremely divided and reactionary, leading to situations where one side boycotting a product leads to the other side over purchasing that same product. There also is no labor movement, like the grape boycott, and thus no solidarity between industry. The point is to withhold profits, if you're not able to do that then a new strategy has to be considered.

Our generation is fixated on the politics of the 60s and incapable of ingenuity, forgetting that the political and economic backdrop of activism in 2020 doesnt in any way resemble our grandparents.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Even if your boycott is successful, they’ll do anything but admit defeat. Remember the Target boycott? It actually had an affect on their sales and stock but they argued that it was because of AmAZoN, like Amazon didn’t exist before April 2016. I remember my local Target which was a circus every weekend, hardly had anyone there for a while. Liberal News outlets downplayed the affect of that boycott like they are over emphasizing this one when quit frankly it doesn’t seem like sales are quite the issue for Rowling. They’ll stick to whatever narrative they want even when the data says otherwise. It’s all spin really.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ooh yeah I have friends in NZ where they still let the Springboks play during the boycott. NZ is still stinging from that. So even secondhand, that worked.

And I remember about blood diamonds. Thank you. Your knowledge and insight are, as always, invaluable (I wanted so hard to say valid just then haha)

[–]Lilith_Fair 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think Peloton did lose all their Xmas sales because of that dumb commercial. It was a stupid commercial but at the end of the day, I'm not sure the punishment fit the crime, so to speak. After all, their losses had no real impact on gender stereotype of societal pressure on women's bodies.

[–]aldoushuxleyghost 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Localized, small brand boycotts are effective, but once something is large enough, the reverse is true. Chick-fil-A is more popular than ever.

[–]spinningIntelligence 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Boycotting isn't itself bad, the problem is that they're boycotting to support a stupid toxic cause.

[–]-thedarkhorse- 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I am partially responsible for this. I am a new proud owner of all the illustrated versions.

[–]malleus_maleficarum 10 insightful - 4 fun10 insightful - 3 fun11 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

Today in: "Shit We Could've Told You But You Slammed Your Hands Over Your Ears and Went 'La-la-la I Can't Hear You!'" Read all about it in cold, hard numbers.

[–]Marsupial 11 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

That reminds me, I haven't read the HP books yet. I need to buy them. I've only watched the movies. Only 20 years late!

[–]Realwoman 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The books are so much better

[–]Sineadsiobhan 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I second this. I was really annoyed that they took out some things in the movies that made sense in the books.

[–]kwallio 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The books have a huge amount of detail that isn't in the movies.

[–]Seahorse 11 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I saw on the ftm sub that someone was "happy" cause JK's books sales were "dropping". And the supposed proof was news articles in Google News instead of actually googling the top selling books🤣

Delusional, she has more supporters than detractors.

[–]Poofter 10 insightful - 3 fun10 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 3 fun -  (7 children)

There’s a big Harry Potter club at my college, and this coming fall we were supposed to have a HP themed homecoming. After some whining by TRAs, it’s now been changed to a Jurassic Park theme instead. This virtue signaling is stupid as fuck

[–]Seahorse 10 insightful - 6 fun10 insightful - 5 fun11 insightful - 6 fun -  (6 children)

Jurassic Park is even more radfem than Harry Potter. All the dinosaurs are female 😁

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Well in the original book some of them change sex because they had frog dna or something. “Nature finds a way” or something like that.

[–]bellatrixbells 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

So Jurassic Park is in fact a hidden message aimed at the trans community : sex change is possible, y'all !!

😂😂😂

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Possibly if you want to argue that. But the general theme of the book (not the movie) was that the scientists didn’t in fact create dinosaurs, they created monsters that were nothing like their ancestors and because they filled missing DNA sequences with animal dna that were only tangentially related to them, it meant those creatures behaved in unpredictable ways. The reason for choosing females only was to control the population. That way the animals couldn’t breed. But the velociraptors that had frog DNA changed sex and started breeding. In other words nature found a way. The thing is though, it’s easier for females to change sex, since you still need a womb to breed. I do wonder had all the animals been male would the sex change happen?

[–]bellatrixbells 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That was genuinely interesting, but for the record I was joking. I was trying to parody the eagerness of TRAs to find ways to make everything ever a hidden message about trans !

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Not just them, compys too... Don't get me started - I love Jurassic Park, and wish they had made it the horror movie it was meant to be. Also hated Jurassic World. But my childhood is intact.

Also the mutant dinos in JP were part frog DNA and... well... humans are not part frog DNA, just sayin'.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

True. But I’ve seen TRAs go all like “ whelp in nature they don’t all have male and female” followed by some bullshit about clownfish and earth worms, none of those examples are of course for mammals. In a way Jurassic Park does apply to them. Scientist are experimenting on humans. They aren’t creating the opposite sex, just an ignorant parody of it. It’s scientists playing God basically.

[–]Anandamide 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Still populating most of the top spots in Amazon's Sci-Fi and Fantasy sales!

[–]Tikiri 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

When I read the books years ago I enjoyed but didn’t think all that much of them, so I gave them 3/4 star ratings on Goodreads. When this whole trans (bleep)show happened I went back and changed all my ratings to 5 stars. Figured it was the least I could do for someone who defends the half of the planet to which I belong.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

More proof that virtue signalling on Twitter is all for show and most people don't really hate JK Rowling. People feel like they have to put on a big show and "make it known" they denounce her. Doesn't translate when her sales are left unaffected. It's all peacocking nonsense to come across as woke.

[–]zephyranthes 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

...Why would they be? They are children's books, books which parents buy for their children. Neither group cares about woke opinion on Twitter. Not only the wokes are overrepresented on social media, they don't even buy what they claim to support.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

My niece's parents didn't grow up with it and neither did she. But she identifies as whatever so they plan to get books they never read and burn them. Wtf

[–]Smurfette 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Well, that’s good. JK makes a few more bucks that way. Encourage them to buy new books. As many as they can afford.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hahaha good point!

[–]5thwaveNOW 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

GOOD :)

[–]Blank-out 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

When this all started I just bought more books from her, haven't read hp in years but enjoyed it growing up. She was always a massive inspiration to me achieving what she has. More so how strong moms could be when I was abandoned by mine in our roughest years.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I’m tempted to buy a few. I was entering adulthood when she became popular, so I never got into the “Harry Potter” craze.

Do people not realize most of the world agrees with JKR? For such “woke” people, her detractors are seriously ignorant about other cultures around the world.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Imagine trying to "cancel" a series almost 20 years old by now...

[–]OrneryStruggle 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

TBH I'm glad she spoke out but I really don't think she desperately needs more money right now and I don't think the HP books were that good... I feel like there's better ways to contribute to feminist activism than making an almost-billionaire even richer with multiple purchases of the same physical books. She's far less vulnerable than 99.9% of other women who share her views but might need the support more.