"Handbook for Mortals" has been pulled from The New York Times bestseller list, and author Lani Sarem is firing back at those questioning sales of the young adult novel.
The book emerged at No. 1 on the Times' most recent young adult hardcover list, with some questioning how that was possible for a book many publishers and authors had never heard of. Some suspected an organized campaign to buy the book in bulk.
"After investigating the inconsistencies in the most recent reporting cycle, we decided that the sales for 'Handbook for Mortals' did not meet our criteria for inclusion. We've issued an updated 'Young Adult Hardcover' list for September 3, 2017 which does not include that title," the Times said in an email to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sarem, an actress and former music manager, told The Hollywood Reporter she thinks the Times caved to social media pressure.
"I'm super frustrated," she said. "There has been no official explanation to what happened other than they reported inconsistencies. Nobody talked to us."
"Handbook for Mortals," the debut novel for publisher GeekNation, had knocked Angie Thomas' "The Hate U Give" out of the top spot on the Times list, Entertainment Weekly noted, adding that it takes about 5,000 sales to make the list.
Young adult author and publisher Phil Stamper was the first to raise questions about the book on Twitter, Pajiba reported.
The reviews for "Handbood for Mortals" were questionable, Pajiba reported, noting that it had nine reviews on Goodreads, all of which were five stars and some duplicates.
Jeremy West, manager of OnBroadwayish, questioned how the book was able to sell 18,000 copies in the past week alone, Pajiba noted.
Sarem called the criticism "disheartening."
"Because some people in the YA community weren’t aware of it doesn’t mean that there weren’t plenty of people out there that were excited about it," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's disheartening that someone I don’t know decided to attack me today basically because he had never heard of my book. I’ve never heard of his book either. It's probably great, but I’ve never heard of it. Does it mean I would question it, if he had some level of success?"