Book Boycott Backfires

An attempted boycott of publisher Tor Books by right-wing online activists has spectacularly backfired as booklovers across the world have responded by purchasing books from Tor to show their support.

The activists in question are known as the Sad Puppies, or simply ‘The Puppies’. They recently gained notoriety by block voting in the recent Hugo Award nominations. The demands are in response to recent statements made by editors and authors who are associated with Tor in some way. Military sci-fi author Peter Grant issued a list of demands on behalf of The Puppies in a private letter that he then posted on his blog.

The demands are:

Tor must publicly apologize for writings by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Moshe Feder, Irene Gallo, and John Scalzi that “demonize, denigrate, slander and lie about the ‘Puppies’ campaigns”

Tor must “publicly reprimand those individuals for stepping over the line”

Tor must “publicly indicate that it is putting in place policies to prevent any recurrence of such issues.”

Despite original Sad Puppy campaigner Larry Correia stating on his blog “The Sad Puppies Campaign is NOT calling for any boycotts”, the letter was later endorsed by prominent members of The Puppies, including Theodore Beale (aka Vox Day). Other Puppies, including John C. Wright, have since contacted STARBURST following the original publication of this news piece to clearly and emphatically state that they do not support the boycott.The response from the greater community has mostly been mockery, and to do their best to support authors by purchasing books from Tor:

Right wing guhgate types are proposing a Tor boycott so if you’re in the mood for some quality SF, start here! http://t.co/u7jzAiDd7y

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) June 19, 2015

Vox Day says “boycott @UKTor” today, so now might be the moment to buy that Tor book you want. pic.twitter.com/c62PiGPeaZ

— Farah Mendlesohn (@effjayem) June 19, 2015

Apparently the sad puppies are planning to boycott Tor, my publisher. I’m scared. Oh, wait, no I’m not.

— Steven Brust (@StevenBrust) June 17, 2015

The Sad Puppies were originally formed by writers Brad R. Torgersen and Larry Correia as a way of protesting the left-wing leanings of recent Hugo Award winners. The campaign was then adopted by Vox Day, who ran a similar campaign called the Rabid Puppies.

The original campaign successfully adjusted the results of the nominations for the 2015 Hugo Awards. Since then, various controversies have stemmed from right and left wing sci-fi fans arguing amongst themselves. The majority of Hugo voters are American, and the debate strongly resembles the current state of American political debate, which in turn is alienating member of the science fiction community outside the US.

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