Amazon Keeps Freeze on Sales of Castalia’s “Corrosion”

Castalia House’s goon book The Corroding Empire keeps trying to come back from the dead, like a Universal Pictures monster. Amazon took the book down on its release day, March 20, because its title, author and cover were deemed misleading – each of those attributes having been made intentionally similar to John Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire.

Castalia House publisher Vox Day promptly announced that the book would be back on Amazon with a new cover, title (Corrosion) and author name (Harry Seldon).

Instead, Vox Day got Amazon to restore The Corroding Empire page under the original pseudonym, but it’s not clear whether sales ever resumed and they are currently disabled (see screencap).

Day has been updating his “Back With A Vengeance” post at Vox Popoli after each go-round with Amazon.

Mr. Amazon SJW just blocked it again. Unsigned, of course. SJWs always double down.

We’re writing to let you know that readers have reported a problem in your book. The error significantly impacts the readability of your book. We have temporarily removed it from sale so that more readers don’t experience the same problem in your book

Error Category: Wrong_Content; Comments: The content of your book is a different edition than what the detail page indicates. Because this could be a serious issue for many customers, we have had to temporarily block your book from sale. Please correct the image so that we can make it available for sale again.

UPDATE: Another phone call and we’re back up again.

UPDATE: And blocked again, albeit this time UNDER REVIEW, not memory-holed.

UPDATE: Finally got to speak to a supervisor. She’s not only escalated the matter to legal, but has assured me that the book will be unblocked, stay unblocked, and that the matter will be fully investigated. It’s not just the three blocks, the culprit(s) also put the book on the Excluded list for Amazon Associates, which prevents others from being paid when someone buys the book.

Vox Day has also raised the spectre of “tortious interference”:

UPDATE: Since some people seem to want to go on the warpath, let me be perfectly clear here: Amazon is not to blame. I even suspect that it is entirely possible that Tor Books is not to blame either, based on a) when the book was pulled and b) the fact that the book has shown as Live for nearly 24 hours but still does not have a page on any Amazon site. The most likely scenario, in my opinion, is a rogue low-level SJW employee, possibly two, in a specific department.

I have already spoken to the manager of one department and they have begun to investigate why Corrosion is Live but not available. They’ve done everything we asked and we have no problem with the way we have been treated.

While he has been arguing for scenarios involving misbehaving Amazon employees or interference by someone at Tor Books, it may be that customers using Amazon’s feedback system are having an impact – they may not have confined themselves to complaining about the one-star reviews left on Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire on its first day in release.

Former Amazon employee Greg Hullender also offered some insights in a comment on Camestros Felapton’s blog:

Having worked at Amazon and dealt with “bad merchants” I can tell you that Amazon keeps a list of “problem children.” After his previous two stunts (the Rape book and the Goodreads hack), I suspect Castalia House is on such a list. That would mean that it would require far fewer customer complaints to get a human involved that would normally be the case.

In this particular case, it almost looks as though VD had hoped to bamboozle a few Scalzi readers into buying his book by mistake. Given the way purchasing on Amazon works, I can’t see how that would happen in real life, but the appearance is bad. The company is extremely allergic to anything that looks like an attempt (however maladroit) to defraud its customers. (In other words, if it looks like you’re trying to rip people off, the fact that you’re using a method that could never work won’t cut any ice.) That could also explain the speed of Amazon’s reaction. (I’ll add that I personally think VD only wanted attention–I doubt he thought this would look like fraud.)….

However, a source disputes my description of Vox Day in yesterday’s Scroll as being “on thin ice” with Amazon. At this time the rest of Castalia House’s books are available for sale.

Update: Two hours after this post was published, Amazon had the book available for sale. I was able to order the sample sent to my Kindle. However, the page still displays the “item under review” box. // Further update: Now the review box is gone, too.

102 thoughts on “Amazon Keeps Freeze on Sales of Castalia’s “Corrosion”

  1. The company is extremely allergic to anything that looks like an attempt (however maladroit) to defraud its customers. (In other words, if it looks like you’re trying to rip people off, the fact that you’re using a method that could never work won’t cut any ice.)

    Based on my experience with their video streaming service, I find this to be a bit tough to swallow. There are plenty of movies out there with names that are identical…or nearly so….to larger properties. Those videos can’t claim to be parodies based on what I’ve seen.

    Perhaps there is a difference between the text/print side of the house and the video side of the house.

    I haven’t seen as much in the book end of things, but I have read items about “authors” gaming the Amazon system for page-views and the like to increase their Kindle Select payments. So someone using a similar book title to divert revenue from popular authors isn’t too far outside of the realm of reality.

    Given the comment wars that go on from time to time, that may be the easiest explanation. (I read about a really nasty situation between a couple of YA romance authors that started with a less than kind comment about a book that eventually escalated into full blown doxxing, threats of violence, and other bad behaviors. Erg. Whataworld.)

    Regards,
    Dann

  2. As usual, VD is playing his “professional victim” card. What a special snowflake he is.
    Basically, Amazon wants to operate as a friction-free, end to end automated sales platform. Anyone who goes around deliberately throwing grit into the machinery is going to cost them employees’ time and therefore money. So if, say, you put up a deliberately misleading book with the same look and cover art as another book, and are a known bad actor, they are going to have a lower threshold of dealing with you than other sellers.
    And why does VD think he has the right to demand that Amazon sell his book? Private website, private company, their own policies. Amazon would be perfectly within their rights to pull all Castalia books (not that I think they should, but they could) and they are perfectly within their rights to not list his dodgy knock-off at all. So I’m not sure why VD is all stompy feet and whiny about Amazon not relisting – he asked for it, what did he expect to happen? They’d pat him on the head and tell him everything’s fine, he can play with the other boys, ha ha, we know it’s all a jolly jape? At some point they may look at the tiny amount of money Castalia brings to them, look at VD’s deliberately obstructive behavior, then kill his listings. And then VD will whine and moan about being silenced when really he deliberately brought it on himself to allow him to be the “persecuted martyr of the alt-right”.

  3. Sounds like VD is spending an awful lot of time and energy on this, while Scalzi seems to be untroubled and dealing with his own business.

    VD is quite the winner.

  4. @Dann

    If you’re thinking of the Asylum-style mockbusters, they certainly skirt the edge but the companies making them are obviously experienced at knowing where the edge is. The element I don’t usually see in those movies that I see here is the high level of similarity of the cover – the VD original wasn’t just vaguely similar, it used near-identical cover design and type, albeit over slightly different art. Combine that with an identical release date, and I suspect that’s where the line got crossed.

  5. Also, the VD blog post makes it clear that our self-styled Dark Lord spent quite a lot of his day on hold, demanding to speak to a supervisor.

    I just find that image quite delightful.

  6. the culprit(s) also put the book on the Excluded list for Amazon Associates

    And this is the real problem for Beale. I’ll bet he makes close to the same amount of money from affiliate links to Amazon as he does from Castalia House book sales.

    Affiliate Sales are something I do a bit of – if you follow an affiliate link to Amazon, then anything you buy within 24 hours or so gives that affiliate a cut of that sale. His earlier links to the product included his Affiliate tag (look for &tag=voxpop06-20 in the URL) once you clicked through. His links in his latest post don’t.

    If you click these links, he’ll get credit for a click. And I’d recommend using an incognito (or private browsing or whatever your browser calls it) window for it if you don’t feel like giving him a share of whatever you end up buying on Amazon in the next day or two.

    He also uses the bit.ly link shortener (it’s possible he’s using the one provided by Amazon themselves for Affiliates), so you can’t see it until you click through.

    His earlier link: http://amzn.to/2mdtblw which expands to https://www.amazon.com/Corroding-Empire-Johan-Kalsi-ebook/dp/B06XFQ24QC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1488795469&sr=8-1&keywords=the+corroding+empire&linkCode=sl1&tag=voxpop06-20&linkId=dd84615adcdb8098ac9f88cd0012f8b1

    Current link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFQ24QC

    That one is safe to click – he won’t get a nickel unless you buy the book.

    Interestingly, he doesn’t disclose on his page that he’s a participant in the Amazon Affiliate Program, which is one of the rules of the program. Maybe someone should inform Amazon of that …

  7. I have no idea what the legal situation is here, and it sounds absolutely idiotic for either side to start engaging in it.

    Worst case for Tor, Beale goes ahead and has his imitation book that’s actually a different book that looks exactly the same. Ummm. OK. I have trouble believing they’d be goaded into that. Well, no, a worse case would be for Beale to force them into litigation, or spread some scandalous rumor that actually grabs hold — but Amazon moles aren’t the way to handle that.

    Worst case for Beale, Amazon pegs him as a troublemaker. Which, (a) would take some doing; Amazon isn’t known for their love and attention to individual internet flareup and kerfluffles; they assiduously hope things will just resolve on their own. And which (b) I would have to assume would be pretty devastating for Castilia House, if it did happen. And I guess also (c), Beale’s good at converting “Oh my god this creature I just poked with a stick growled back at me” into outrage, so I guess if he got Amazon to blacklist him he would gin up a few more Facebook minions?

    But what I assume is really going to happen here is: Beale will get the book back up in some form or another, with some title or other, with some cover or other. Then he’ll keep on whispering how evil Tor and vile SJW minions infiltrating Amazon tried to sabotage the book and failed. And everybody* will know how John Scalzi personally tried** to keep Beale from publishing a better book than his***.

    And if he’s very very lucky, the 2018 Hugo shortlist for Best Novel will look a bit stupider.

    I can’t see this going to anything bigger than that. Tor has nothing to gain, and I don’t think Beale actually wants Amazon mad at him.

    —-
    * Beale’s readership
    ** [citation needed]
    *** [as previous footnote]

  8. Castalia House’s goon book The Corroding Empire keeps trying to come back from the dead, like a Universal Pictures monster.

    *snicker*

  9. I hadn’t much intended to buy Scalzi’s book, but VD’s whining and machinations managed to goad me into it. (I got the audio version, being an audio addict.) And I’m sure I’m not the only one whose interest has been piqued.

    Does VD even realize that he may increase Scalzi’s sales numbers in the long run? Or is he entirely focused on trying to whip his minions into another idiotic frenzy?

  10. I’m now getting a “Page not found” on Amazon’s site following Beale’s links.

    Makes me wish I wasn’t at work, so I could pop some corn while I watch VD’s site.

  11. @Standback:

    And everybody* will know how John Scalzi personally tried** to keep Beale from publishing a better book than his***.

    And by the shocking, underhand tactic of actually writing a good book! Are there no depths to which the monstrous Scalzi will not sink when it comes to ignoring Beale’s antics?

  12. I don’t think Beale actually wants Amazon mad at him.

    Given his Uriah Heep-like insistent that no no, it’s not them being wicked, it’s Rogue Employees, it’s pretty clear he’s desperate not to get Amazon mad at him.

  13. I just refreshed the Amazon page and the “Buy with 1-click” button now displays for me. Strangely, the “item under review” box is still there too.

  14. Mark

    Also, the VD blog post makes it clear that our self-styled Dark Lord spent quite a lot of his day on hold, demanding to speak to a supervisor.

    I just find that image quite delightful

    Weird how he has inside information that can tell him it’s just a rogue employee or two but has to still call into the customer service hotline.

    Badgering Amazon and reuploading the original artwork because a phone rep said they didn’t understand what the problem was, and pointing out how he’s not following KDP guidelines or affiliate link guidelines feels like a he’ll keep shooting at his feet until there’s no toes left. Feels sort of pointless to have secondary art as a backup in the 4G masterplan if he’s going to keep using the original and die on that hill.

    Mike Glyer

    I just refreshed the Amazon page and the “Buy with 1-click” button now displays for me. Strangely, the “item under review” box is still there too

    No Pixel Scroll Under Review for me, just the buy now button. I do see the author and title have changed again, which must be going for a record at this point.

  15. On Kindle’s iPad client, an attempt to buy this book fails with this error:

    Due to copyright restrictions, the Kindle title you’re trying to purchase is not available in your country (United States).

    Did you recently move to a new country?

    A sample of the book can still be downloaded. The copyright page states it is “Copyright 2017 Castalia House.”

    In the sample, I found a possible clue about who the author might be. One line in the Prologue states, “Louis attacked the door with all the barbaric savagery of a pagan neo-goth prying jeweled eyes out of a statue of Saint Kurzweil.”

    Calling Ray Kurzweil “Saint Kurzweil” is a gag that was used in the short story Turncoat by Castalia House author Steve Rzasa.

  16. Right now, the book is available for purchase. I downloaded the free sample, of which I read only the prologue.

    It’s got one line that made me laugh: “Louis attacked the door with all the barbaric savagery of a pagan neo-goth prying jeweled eyes out of a statue of Saint Kurzweil.” (eta — I see that rcade already mentioned this!)

    It also has a fully predictable intense male gaze — not describing the physical appearance of the male MC at all, but lovingly noting the attractive young female doctor, her clothing, even her “slender index finger” and long scarlet fingernails — and, of course, one of the first thoughts our male MC has about her is whether she’s having an affair with the boss. Sigh.

    Other than that — some really awkward names, some obvious “the bosses are crooked idiots” digs, and some pseudo-scientific handwavium. Nothing terribly exceptional if you like that sort of thing, and I must assume that sort of thing is typical for Castalia.

  17. It also has a fully predictable intense male gaze …

    Boy howdy does it ever. Here’s how we meet the novel’s first female character, a couple pages into the Prologue:

    The door evaporated, revealing an attractive young woman in custom, blue-green shimmering Chrysoletts sitting with her feet kicked up on her multi-tiered desk. She was reading something which, judged by the guilty expression that flashed across her face, had nothing to do with biogenics.

    Her blonde hair was uncharacteristically undone and hanging loosely about her face. She swept it back impatiently. “Sure, Tharry — hold on, will you, my band just broke.” She reached into her desk and withdrew a small transparent bag containing what looked like a rainbow orgy of very skinny worms. She adroitly drew one out on a slender index finger that very nearly matched the scarlet of her long fingernail, while she reached back and gripped her hair at the back of her head with her other hand. She raised her outstretched finger to her other hand and the red band wriggled, more like a snake than the worm it resembled, into the clutch of hair she held behind her head. She let go as it automatically bound her hair into a loose tail.

    “They say these things are unbreakable. Ha! If they were unbreakable, why do they sell them in bags of fifty? Anyhow, what sort of bug have you got up your bottom today, Tharry?”

    None of the men gets as much as a single adjective to describe his physical appearance.

  18. rcade

    None of the men gets as much as a single adjective to describe his physical appearance

    I kind of want an audio book of this read by the guy who does Zap Branigan….

    And all of that reads exactly like it was edited by someone who approved of ‘An Interstellar Sci Fi Epic In Space’.

  19. Looks like someone high enough up the food chain at Amazon concluded it wasn’t really fraud. Since I think that’s actually the correct decision, I can’t complain too much.

    I imagine they’re unhappy about his fake-reviews operation against Scalzi’s book, but kicking Castalia House off the platform wouldn’t stop him from doing that in the future. Threatening him might, though, and it does seem that the campaign has stopped.

    Also, I seriously doubt there were any “rogue employees” involved. I think everyone felt he/she was acting to protect the customers, and I’m pretty sure that’s how Amazon will treat it.

  20. @rcade – the men don’t need an adjective, we all know they are manly men. Otherwise they wouldn’t be in the book, duh.

  21. @rcade — “None of the men gets as much as a single adjective to describe his physical appearance.”

    To be fair, one male character is said to have graying hair and shiny white teeth. 😉

  22. I’m quietly enjoying Scalzi’s book, which I got from Audible because Scalzi. Always enjoy his stuff. I hope Beale is enjoying his activities, because I can’t believe he’s making money on this.

  23. Correction: There is one physical reference — a male character who might be shtupping slender-finger Scrunchie lady has “an excellent head of executive hair.”

    Edit: And what Contrarius said.

  24. @rcade – the men don’t need an adjective, we all know they are manly men. Otherwise they wouldn’t be in the book, duh.

    That makes me think of Heinlein, so credit to Beale for that I guess. Reading some of the old classics now makes me groan when the story suddenly gets all Penthouse Forum and takes a narrative cul de sac into the female form. Did you know they have curves in all the right places?

  25. A doctor? With long painted nails? I suppose there must be one somewhere, but there goes my suspension of disbelief.

  26. @rcade: Wonder if they ever met a woman with curves in all the wrong places. Nah, of course not. And what are the “right places”, given human variation as to what is sexually attractive?

    I’ve read the new Scalzi book and it’s pretty darn swell. A lot of world-building is done in conversations, but no “As you know Bob” (no, not the Filer) infodumps, or loooong paragraphs of describing things.

    The characters are many and varied in personality, gender, sexual identity, color of skin, religion, and profession. You got your Emperox, a bishop, a personal assistant to the Emprox, a college professor, some cops, some soldiers, a farmer, a lot of personnel in the business of shipping stuff from planet to planet, and a bunch of frenemy 1%-er Counts and Lords doing excellent scheming. All distinct.

    Plus, the ships have the best names since The Culture; the first ones we hear about are the sister ships “Yes Sir That’s My Baby” and “No Sir I Don’t Mean Maybe”.

    I LOL. I choked up. I want more.

  27. That makes me think of Heinlein, so credit to Beale for that I guess. Reading some of the old classics now makes me groan when the story suddenly gets all Penthouse Forum and takes a narrative cul de sac into the female form. Did you know they have curves in all the right places?

    Well, if they had curves in all the wrong places, that’s a dead giveaway you’re dealing with evil alien pod women here.

  28. She adroitly drew one out on a slender index finger that very nearly matched the scarlet of her long fingernail . . .

    At first, I thought this meant that her skin was red.

  29. @lurkertype This is only urging me to push the Scalzi up my TBR pile some more 🙂

  30. Meredith: A doctor? With long painted nails? I suppose there must be one somewhere, but there goes my suspension of disbelief.

    That was my thought: the author is clearly clueless about the field of medicine, if he’s giving a doctor long fingernails.

    And WTF are “Chrysoletts”? It sounds as if she’s wearing an outfit made of butterfly pupae.

  31. @Paul: Doooo iiiiit. The only reason I didn’t read straight through was b/c it came onto the Kindle at night and I eventually had to sleep at maybe 4 AM. Up by 10 and finished it.

    @Greg: Yeah, it’s SF, a main character having a body part first described as “scarlet” primes anyone to think said character isn’t baseline human. I *think* Teddy Boy was trying to say the live hair scrunchie was bright red, but what I pictured was a being with fingers longer and skinnier than human-standard and scarlet-colored skin, and probably long pointy nails like claws. Sooper Genyus XanaD’OH can’t even fix his own misplaced clauses.

  32. Standback: Worst case for Beale, Amazon pegs him as a troublemaker.

    Assuming that some unwary buyers were actually fooled into buying the Castalia book thinking that they were getting Scalzi’s, they’re going to figure it out immediately upon reading a few pages. I mean, that sample is really badly-written. Anyone who’s read Scalzi’s books previously will realize that they’ve gotten a ringer.

    Kindle buyers can request refunds if there’s a problem with the book — and Amazon usually grants them. I suspect that the employee overhead involved in dealing with refund requests from mistaken sales would make tolerating VD’s clown antics even more of a losing proposition for Amazon.

  33. rcade wrote:
    Boy howdy does it ever. Here’s how we meet the novel’s first female character, a couple pages into the Prologue:
    That paragraph sounds as though it could be a script for one of those commercials where a gorgeous woman does everything in slow motion — eats a hot dog in slow motion, flips her hair in slow motion, walks toward the camera in slow motion…

  34. @JJ

    It would have been better off with something like:

    She adroitly drew one out on a slender index finger, the scarlet vividly contrasting with her short, neatly manicured fingernail, while she reached back and gripped her hair at the back of her head with her other hand.

    I mean, the writing is still bad*, but it would have been a bit of doctory character detail.

    *The use of adroitly is bugging me so much and I can’t put my finger on why.

  35. I’d have gone with:
    With a slender index finger, she deftly withdrew one which very nearly matched the scarlet of her short, neatly manicured fingernail, while reaching back and gripping her hair at the back of her head with her other hand.

    The original sentence is just such a mess, in a variety of different ways.

  36. I got such a laugh out of a line from one of the reviews on Scalzi’s book (which is no doubt a response to the review from a Puppy which has the header “TRIGGER WARNINGS! EXPLOITATIVE SEX, POTTY MOUTH DIALOGUE”):

    If you like previous works by Scalzi, you’ll enjoy this book. If your mouth doubles as a citation printer and every time you hear someone swear you find yourself uncontrollably saying “You are fined 1 credit for a violation of the verbal Morality Statute.” then this book probably isn’t for you.

  37. JJ’s is good. More in character, shorter, no confusion of what color the lady’s skin is and exactly where her hands are.

    I know what the original reminds me of! That 3-armed critter in the animated Star Trek series! Arex. With blonde hair, which maybe their females have?

    @JJ: anything ending in “oletts” sounds to me like it’s a hygiene product. Moist towelette. Portolet. Washlet. Etc. So it seems to me she’s wearing an outfit made of damp wipes, made from dead bugs.* Ew. Teddy can’t even name things euphoniously.

    Talk about things in the wrong places!

    *Maybe related to the 3 shells Stallone didn’t know how to use?

    ETA: Ha! JJ’s movie reference was posted while I was still typing this!

  38. @JJ

    I made a rule for myself that I wasn’t allowed to mess with anything that wasn’t short-unpainted-fingernail related. Otherwise I probably would have ended up trying to rewrite the whole paragraph and really, if the author didn’t care enough to polish it, neither do I. Yours is sooo much more coherent, though!

    (Hmm, maybe

    … while gathering her hair into a ponytail with her other hand.

    ?)

  39. As we all know from what we have read about them, humans consist partly of spheres and partly of cuboids. People who have cuboids in places where they should have spheres are an affront to geometry, hence the compliment: “has curves in all the right places”.

    Now you may be thinking “none of that is remotely true” but that’s because you have a sphere for a head instead of a cuboid like all right-thinking people.

  40. So much LOL’ing at the comments here (to say nothing of the actual blog post!). 😀 Thanks, all!

  41. Vox and Castalia House had absolutely nothing to do with “the Rape book”. Greg Hullender obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

  42. I made the mistake of making a snarking comment in one of the fake reviews. The fellow immediately tracked me down in RL. He assures me though that it will be Vox himself I hear from. He is just a dutiful minion.

  43. @rochrist: Gosh, then *you* can sue *him* for stalking, menacing, harassment, whatever it’s called in your jurisdiction. What a switcheroo!

    @Meredith: See, this is why I was thinking she might have more than two hands. Also, where else would she be gathering her hair to replace it in a ponytail? In front of her face? Maybe, since she seems to be a doctor with impossible fingernails — living in Bizarro universe?

    (If anyone can draw a scrawny red 3-armed alien with claws and a blonde ponytail in front of their face, I will not be able to give you any money, but you will have my gratitude. Extra points for the dead bug clothing.)

  44. Castalia House’s goon book The Corroding Empire keeps trying to come back from the dead, like a Universal Pixel monster.

    FTFY

    Oh VD is in full panic mode – if Amazon pulls the book for good or makes it harder for him to sell his book via the platform, he would have a hard time explaining that to his authors… (*)
    Now if only Chuck Tingle would release a new book “Pounded in the butt by a corroding empire” then I can live happily ever after…

    (*) It shows how unprofessional he works, putting cheap shots above actual sales. Im curious if he will apologize for his “idea”

  45. Ted, apologise? That’s extremely unlikely. He’ll just rant about SJWs a bit and move onto his next failure-in-waiting.

  46. @Greg @JJ: My experience with Amazon (admittedly, as a bystander) is that they’ll pretty much ignore practically any individual dust-up. They deal with trends, not incidents.

    All the mechanisms to take care of incidents are already in place — from the “Report” button to the Support channel to the “Problem Vendors” list Greg mentioned, and up to Legal, if need be. (I’m oh-so dubious about Beale’s claim of a “rogue operative” within Amazon, partially because I assume 95% of the whole deal is mechanized. Much, much more plausible for this to be the interaction of various reports and complaints, and maybe a rare combination of the book changing state along several different avenues, than Amazon employees having a big red unsupervised “Screw This Book” button.)

    Beyond everything that’s already there? Amazon doesn’t care. They don’t care about Scalzi; they certainly don’t care about Castalia as a particular publisher. They can lose every single sale of both books and not care. Some level of people screwing around with the system is always going to be there; that’s a built-in assumption.

    There used to be a whole bunch of self-published ebooks that would sell Wikipedia articles as books. (They might well still be around; I haven’t checked.) As far as Amazon is concerned, this isn’t really different. They have a funnel: If enough people complain about it, it might get blocked automatically; if the creator fights for it, they can probably get it back; this cycle can repeat several times, and eventually it might get to a human being who will call the issue, one way or the other.

    The only way it gets any further than that is if people force it to — either by making a huge publicity thing out of it, or by litigating. Since this is a tiny, whiny, insignificant prank, I really don’t think it’s going to reach critical publicity mass on its own merits. Litigation is an option, but as I said, I think this would be a really dumb thing to try to sue Amazon over, from either side. I suppose Tor, as a major publisher, might have some weight with Amazon, but if I were them, I sure as heck wouldn’t be leaning on Amazon for this. (On the other hand, it’s very much in Beale’s interest to allege that they are.)

  47. So, who wants to take up a collection for James Davis Nicoll to write a “My Tears Are Delicious To You” review of this?

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