Camestros Felapton

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Has the Tor Boycott Ended?

The answer is probably not because a Puppy of one kind or another will read this post and insist that actually the boycott is going full strength and even now they have enlisted the power of the heat death of the universe to destroy Tor books using the inevitable outcomes of thermodynamics.

However, has it ended as a ‘thing’? Apparently so. There is no fixed date and I doubt we’ll be seeing any gushing reviews of a Tor published book or story from a major Puppy outlet anytime soon but it does seem like the Tor Boycott has been quietly retired.

For example: Look at the masthead here August13 2016 http://web.archive.org/web/20160813210211/https://voxday.blogspot.com/

and then here on August 26 : http://web.archive.org/web/20160826144457/https://voxday.blogspot.com/

The other major promoter of the Tor Boycott was Peter Grant, a Sad Puppy supporter and now Castalia House/Vox Day published author. His last mention of the Tor Boycott was in September while spruiking Declan Finn http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/sad-puppies-loud-giggles-and-new-book.html

Aside from that, it would seem that the mighty Tor boycott fell victim to a lack of steam and short attention spans. That isn’t news, of course. I think everybody but Peter Grant knew that it would fizzle away into nothing.

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17 responses to “Has the Tor Boycott Ended?”

  1. Was the Tor Boycott ever a real thing? I know the puppies made noise, but did they change anyone’s behavior to any significant degree?

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    • delagar: Was the Tor Boycott ever a real thing?

      I think that the Torcott consisted of a number of loud, braying Puppies who didn’t buy Tor books continuing to not buy Tor books. Then there was the day (June 18, 2015, I think) that a bunch of us bought a Tor book or three in support of them. I suspect that they enjoyed a modest sales spike that day, and then went back to their usual selling lots of good books every day.

      Like the Trumpeters with Hamilton tickets, the Puppies did not understand that it is impossible to boycott something you wouldn’t have bought anyway.

      Liked by 2 people

  2. I expect my unplanned personal boycott of TOR to continue. I used to buy stuff they published all the time… up to the early 2000s. I did not follow SF politics in the pre-Sad Puppy days, I didn’t check publishers, or authors. Didn’t care. Just wanted a book to read.

    The last few years, I began noticing a lot of Baen showing up in my library. Not by design, just by “chance.” I knew nothing of the business end, the shenanigans, the SJW putsch in New York publishing. I just noticed I really didn’t like a lot of the new stuff on the shelves. Kept buying stuff and getting disgusted in the first third of the book. TOR was taking itself out of my library, along with many other publishers.

    Not completely of course, there were a few fun things now and again. But it was becoming increasingly difficult to find good things to read. And it wasn’t just me, the shelf space in the bookstores kept shrinking.

    All that’s changed the last four years of Sad Puppies is I now have a name to put to my discontent.

    Nobody is -really- boycotting TOR, on the Sad Puppy side anyway, there’s no organization to cause such a thing to happen. TOR is boycotting us.

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    • “shenanigans” = publishing books people like to read.

      But I’m done trying to convince puppies of that. They’re locked into their post-fact world.

      Liked by 1 person

      • I direct your attention to the blog of the TOR managers, Making Light. Very not interested in publishing things Trump Voters want to read, because uncouth deplorables must die, I guess. Great business plan.

        One of their employees/contributors has been making comments that Puppies are Communists as well, showing all the acumen and historical knowledge we’ve come to expect from SJWs. Last year they were saying we were Nazis and racists.

        Then there is the issue that fewer people are reading. Shrinking shelves, you know. TOR is boycotting us.

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      • “Not completely of course, there were a few fun things now and again.”

        See? I said that already. Yes, TOR did publish -a- book I wanted to buy last year.

        Imagine how good their sales could be if they just stopped insulting their customer base and got some more authors like Neal Asher.

        Shrinking shelves, Camestros. Shrinking shelves.

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    • There’s a difference between actively boycotting a business and simply not buying their products, because you don’t care for them. For example, I don’t drink cola, because I don’t like it. However, I’m not boycotting Coke or Pepsi, I simply don’t like the product.

      Another example: Baen rarely publishes books I like to read. Unless it’s a new book by Lois McMaster Bujold (and she’s gone part indie by now), Sharon Lee and Steve Miller or P.C. Hodgell, I hardly ever buy Baen books. However, I’m not boycotting them, I simply don’t particularly care for most of their output.

      So it’s perfectly okay, if you don’t buy books from Tor, because they rarely publish books you like. But not liking a product and not choosing to buy it is not a boycott.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Me too, and yet the damn cabbagey things still appeared on the table this Thursday. Luckily the hostess had also provided asparagus.
        (Along with turkey, 2 kinds of stuffing, 3 kinds of cranberry sauce, 2 kinds of potatoes, sweet potatoes, a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin cake, a butterscotch schnapps cake, and many wines and ports, plus cheese and wontons beforehand).

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      • “…not liking a product and not choosing to buy it is not a boycott.”

        Yes, exactly. Like Lurkertype below, I almost never buy Baen books, because they almost never publish books I like. But this isn’t a boycott — it’s just that, like McDonalds, they don’t put out a product I enjoy.

        Which is fine! Other publishers do, so I buy from them.

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  3. It’s no good presenting facts or evidence to phantom. Like most puppies, he reasons thusly: “I have a conclusion. Now I will search for facts to support that conclusion.

    “If I discover any facts that don’t support that conclusion, I will not see them. If someone points them out to me, I will not see them as often as necessary. Only facts that support my conclusion will be admitted into my worldview.

    “Thus, my conclusion will be proved! Amazing!”

    Liked by 1 person

    • No, it’s not “Amazing!” It’s “Aristotle!”

      I’m with Cora — I’m not boycotting Baen so much as the only authors they publish that I regularly buy are Bujold and Lee&Miller, who are atypical Baen authors as it is. If they went somewhere else, I’d go too — I think I’m on the 3rd publisher (not counting indie) for L&M as it is. The rest of their stuff simply doesn’t appeal to me, but I don’t start a stupid pointless campaign about it. I try not to hold their fans against them, either. I do MIGHTILY object to their shitty editing.

      I think I bought a Tor book I’d been wanting anyway on the official anti-boycott day instead of a month later or a week earlier. It was a good reminder to get something I already knew I wanted.

      I also like Tor’s novellas, both on the website and paid-for. It’s a really good length for SFF, and they’re the only publisher who support that length. Sometimes you don’t want a doorstop, or a 15-book saga.

      Liked by 2 people

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