The culture war has shifted in a way I never thought possible. The big media conglomerates have been put on the defense on every front, to the way the fake news has gone full tilt in an effort to preserve their power, resulting in their lower ratings, not to mention the entire internet declaring war on a cable network, and now to this.
If you recall several months ago, Milo’s book through S&S shot to #1 on Amazon. Big money was there as it stayed at that spot for a while, which from what I understand of the Amazon rankings, would have outperformed his already hefty advance based on that alone. Milo was going to be rich, S&S was going to have a certifiable hit. Everyone would have been happy.
Instead, the company fell for the trap that so many companies do when they are faced with anyone who “wrongthinks” working on their products: they got scared of a small crowd of angry alt-left internet trolls who threatened the boycott and disavow game. Despite the overwhelming sales, S&S removed the book from their catalogue.
Milo self-published the book instead, not having to share royalties with any publisher, and guess what? It’s been extremely successful and shot to #1 again. Lesson right here for those who are scared of associating: NO ONE CARES. Your brand doesn’t get hurt from association. It doesn’t impact you in any way. The few spergs on the internet complaining, if any will, won’t buy your products anyway because those types are basement dwellers with no disposable income. Normal people are not paying attention, and they are actually more in tune to the political side in which you shun. If anything, the association will sell you a few products you wouldn’t have otherwise, because they may try out your brand tertiarily because they like who you’re associated with. That loyal liking is far more powerful than hate. It works every time. Try it.
And what’s great about this development this morning, is that S&S isn’t just losing their original sales, they’re not only losing the backlash from the right who saw a big corporation silencing the poor voice and oppressing a minority gay in the worst way, but now they’re going to have to settle a lawsuit.
I’m keen on how these legal battles work from experience in various business fields. First, juries/judges are always sympathetic to individuals vs. big companies. It’s how we work as Americans. It tilts the scales against S&S almost immediately as a monolith media conglomerate. Second, judges hate to deal with lawsuits like this. It’ll be a media circus like none other, and the only thing it can do is make the court look bad, so they’ll want to rid of it immediately. They’ll recommend mediation almost certainly, and S&S, not wanting to have a drawn out legal battle vs. Milo who has nothing to lose, will almost certainly have to settle. Vox Day commented that they probably don’t want to go to discovery and have the emails and other communications aired which may be extremely damning to the company. I think he’s likely right about that.
No matter the result, this is a huge loss for Big Media corporate world and a huge gain for the power of the individual with his own platform in the media landscape. Milo’s made big money by being authentic, and standing up for who he is. You can too. Take heart!
Let’s not forget Milo sold a 100,000 copies in a day. At $18/book that’s a couple million books. How soon until the shareholder lawsuits start?
Excellent point. I really hope there’s some class action going on! That’s big money!
It’s not really “in a day” when there are pre-sales.
“Well, actually…”
It’s selling great. Better than probably everyone here combined.
And BTW, it’s not “alt-left”, but “ctrl-left”. In addition to playing off the computer key thing, it’s an accurate assessment of what they want: control.
(Not original to me, but I have shamelessly appropriated [*ahem*] it.)
True!
//nstead, the company fell for the trap that so many companies do when they are faced with anyone who “wrongthinks” working on their products: they got scared of a small crowd of angry alt-left internet trolls who threatened the boycott and disavow game. Despite the overwhelming sales, S&S removed the book from their catalogue.//
That isn’t what happened Jon.
While it is true that many on the left criticised S&S giving a Milo a book deal, S&S made it clear that they would continue with that deal, despite that.
S&S only changed its mind when some CONSERVATIVES and some members of the alt-Right objected to Milo’s views on under-age sex (specifically under-aged gay sex). You’ve completely written out that sequence in the events. S&S cancelling Milo’s book was connected to CPAC (hardly ‘alt-left internet trolls’) also disinvited Milo from speaking.
Put more specifically: S&S cancelled Milo’s book because they thought it wouldn’t sell well enough to the RIGHT not because the LEFT doesn’t like Milo.
As yes. In fact he was denouncing underage sex. Milo was sexually abused by a priest so I doubt very much he would celebrate or support it.
In the end Simon and Schuster welshed on a deal and will pay a high price both on lost sales as well as a stockholder revolt. And CPAC was perceived as buckling under pressure from social justice jackbooters
I’m curious if Milo used Amazon kindle publishing features?
//And CPAC was perceived as buckling under pressure from social justice jackbooters//
That would be a weird perception when the pressure was from the *right*. In particular well know far-right/alt-right loudmouth Richard Spencer.
And what makes you think that that social justice stupidity is to confined to the left? The alt-right is foolish in trying to mirror image the social justice lunatics of the left.