Careercow Chuck Wendig / Charles Wendig / TerribleMinds - Terrible author, terrible person, ruined Internet Archive's online library

[JJLiautaud]

Moorcock was a great fantasy/sci-fi writer with a real talent for creating a large, overarching thematic structure to contain all of his work. Literary criticism, however, was definitely not one of his strengths.

Dude called Asimov a crypto-stalinist

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

Okay, let's go.

If I were sitting in a tube train and all the people opposite me were reading Mein Kampf with obvious enjoyment and approval it probably wouldn't disturb me much more than if they were reading Heinlein, Tolkein or Richard Adams.

Wait. Wait.

That Richard Adams?

Imma need a drink before I carry on.

 

[AnOminous]

That Richard Adams?

Yes, THAT Richard Adams. You have just begun to plumb the depths of lunacy that await you if you go further.

For more fun of this sort and to see him go into a full euphoric meltdown, look at anything he wrote about C.S. Lewis. He has a hateboner the size of Stormbringer for that guy.

 

[Shamash]

To give Wendig a little credit, it's not the worst take on Tolkien I have ever read. That prize goes to another shitty YA author:

No, I don't think going into the West is a "reward" or a question of "deserving." That's much too simple a reading.

What I do believe is that Tolkien's chosen ending allows him--and that's "him" the author rather than "him" the protagonist--to circumvent and elide the reality of thousands of men of his generation, the men who are the secondary characters, for example, of Sayers' The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, men who actually have to live with the unredeemable pain and sometimes humiliation of having survived World War I.

What exactly are they saying here? Tolkien had survivor’s guilt? This doesn’t make any sense.

 

[AnOminous]

What exactly are they saying here? Tolkien had survivor’s guilt? This doesn’t make any sense.

No, the actual opposite, this idiot is saying he somehow never experienced World War I, unlike other men of his time, when he actually fought in it, nearly died in it, and watched friends die in it. He did not want to, and used an academic deferral to delay his conscription, but ultimately actually did go on to participate in battles like the Somme.

He definitely had survivor's guilt, but not the kind you get by not even participating in the conflict.

 

[Shamash]

No, the actual opposite, this idiot is saying he somehow never experienced World War I, unlike other men of his time, when he actually fought in it, nearly died in it, and watched friends die in it. He did not want to, and used an academic deferral to delay his conscription, but ultimately actually did go on to participate in battles like the Somme.

He definitely had survivor's guilt, but not the kind you get by not even participating in the conflict.

Ah I see.

Wait, what? How can you be so fucking retarded? Just…damn.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

Ah I see.

Wait, what? How can you be so fucking retarded? Just…damn.

Spoiler

The first hypothesis would involve as much intake of soy as George had of fentanyl.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Dude called Asimov a crypto-stalinist

Whats hilarious about Moorecock is that he has the (((Adorno))) problem: for some one who professes to be so interested in the liberation of man he seems awfully interested in what people are doing with their free time and how theyre using it wrong

Really gets the noggin joggin.


Edit: As is so often the case what is true has been said before and in a better manner:

Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, ‘What class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with, and most hostile to, the idea of escape?’ and gave the obvious answer: jailers- CS Lewis

 

[Flexo]

To Cuck Windbag, if you're reading this:

View attachment 2810405

Amazing how the placement of 'A' can change a sentence's meaning.

 

[Water-T]

Amazing how the placement of 'A' can change a sentence's meaning.

LOLOL. I didn't notice that until you pointed it out.

 

[Flexo]

LOLOL. I didn't notice that until you pointed it out.

I thought it was a great joke because with Chuck, I couldn't tell which way you intended it.

 

[Boston Brand]

So... who wants Chuck Wendig's sales numbers?

Nothing on his self-published work, but his trad stuff

The Complete Double Dead: 1,864 total

Zer0es 2,408 HC/7,247 PB
Invasive: 1,031 HC/2235 PB

Star Wars: Aftermath: 130,826 HC/81,184 PB
Star Wars: Afermath - Life Debt: 31,806 HC/43,027 PB
Star Wars: Aftermath - Empire's End: 29,064 HC/38,339 PB

Wanderers: 17,563 HC/6,408 PB
Book of Accidents: 16,732 HC

You Can Do Anything, Magic Skeleton!: Monster Motivations to Move Your Butt and Get You to Do the Thing: 2,331

I have his comic TPB titles too!

Hyperion: Daddy Issues: 192
Star Wars The Force Awakens: 2,336
Turok Vol 1: Blood Hunt: 57


Merry Christmas you filthy animals.

 

[JJLiautaud]

So... who wants Chuck Wendig's sales numbers?

Nothing on his self-published work, but his trad stuff

The Complete Double Dead: 1,864 total

Zer0es 2,408 HC/7,247 PB
Invasive: 1,031 HC/2235 PB

Star Wars: Aftermath: 130,826 HC/81,184 PB
Star Wars: Afermath - Life Debt: 31,806 HC/43,027 PB
Star Wars: Aftermath - Empire's End: 29,064 HC/38,339 PB

Wanderers: 17,563 HC/6,408 PB
Book of Accidents: 16,732 HC

You Can Do Anything, Magic Skeleton!: Monster Motivations to Move Your Butt and Get You to Do the Thing: 2,331

I have his comic TPB titles too!

Hyperion: Daddy Issues: 192
Star Wars The Force Awakens: 2,336
Turok Vol 1: Blood Hunt: 57


Merry Christmas you filthy animals.

That complete drop in sales numbers between the star wars novels really cheers me up.
Also Star Wars Aftermath has something shifty going because don't PB's usually out sell HC's?

 

[Boston Brand]

That complete drop in sales numbers between the star wars novels really cheers me up.
Also Starwars Aftermath has something shifty going because dont PB's usually outsale HCs?

Me as well. Hope for the fanbase yet!

As for paperbacks, they don't always sell more copies than the hardcover. The important number isn't which one sells more, its the 70 percent drop from book one to book two.

 

[Fakenamemagoo]

So even with the power of Star Wars branding and the anticipation of a new Canon/Trilogy he couldn't even crack a quarter million in sales with the first Aftermath? Is 210k sales considered successful? I always imagined being a best seller would be in the millions range. Or am I overestimating the market for books?

 

[Second Missing Primarch]

So... who wants Chuck Wendig's sales numbers?

Nothing on his self-published work, but his trad stuff

The Complete Double Dead: 1,864 total

Zer0es 2,408 HC/7,247 PB
Invasive: 1,031 HC/2235 PB

Star Wars: Aftermath: 130,826 HC/81,184 PB
Star Wars: Afermath - Life Debt: 31,806 HC/43,027 PB
Star Wars: Aftermath - Empire's End: 29,064 HC/38,339 PB

Wanderers: 17,563 HC/6,408 PB
Book of Accidents: 16,732 HC

You Can Do Anything, Magic Skeleton!: Monster Motivations to Move Your Butt and Get You to Do the Thing: 2,331

I have his comic TPB titles too!

Hyperion: Daddy Issues: 192
Star Wars The Force Awakens: 2,336
Turok Vol 1: Blood Hunt: 57


Merry Christmas you filthy animals.

So Chuck's professionally published works have sold, all together, 414,650 copies. And, you know what, that's not a bad number in this day and age. But then you deduct his Star Wars books, and you wind up with 58,068 copies sold. The only reason anyone anywhere has ever given a shit about Chuck Wendig's writing was Star Wars, and he squandered the opportunity he was given because he couldn't stop being a loudmouthed, self-righteous ass on Twatter.

So how's Tolkien doing in sales numbers? The Hobbit: 140.6 million copies.
Lord of the Rings: ~155 million copies (Solid numbers are pretty much impossible to nail down because LOTR's been sold as a single volume and a trilogy and there have been many cases of unauthorized or pirate editions being published, but it's at least 150 million, with some estimates going up to 400 million)
The Silmarillion: ~1 million copies.

So, all together they've sold nearly 300 million copies. Methinks Chuck has got some major sour grapes going on here, given that the densest and least accessible book of Tolkien's legendarium has still comfortably outsold all of his pro-published works combined.

So even with the power of Star Wars branding and the anticipation of a new Canon/Trilogy he couldn't even crack a quarter million in sales with the first Aftermath? Is 210k sales considered successful? I always imagined being a best seller would be in the millions range. Or am I overestimating the market for books?

Depends how you qualify "bestseller", but in America at least it's rare for books not by a big-name author or from an established franchise to crack the 1 million mark. The usual benchmark in this country is the New York Times bestseller list, but their method for determining that list isn't a straightforward process of tallying sales numbers and they've admitted in the past it's not an objective list. That said, their current No. 1 bestseller, Call Us What We Carry, has sold about 462,000 copies in hardback, which is pretty damn good in this day and age. Chuck's sales numbers on that first Aftermath book are definitely enough to qualify it as a bestseller by that metric. The fact that he didn't do better with all of Disney's marketing muscle and the cachet of the SW franchise behind him is a pretty big indictment of his abilities as a writer and Disney's handling of their IP.

 

[Walrus and Carpenter]

So... who wants Chuck Wendig's sales numbers?

Nothing on his self-published work, but his trad stuff

The Complete Double Dead: 1,864 total

Zer0es 2,408 HC/7,247 PB
Invasive: 1,031 HC/2235 PB

Star Wars: Aftermath: 130,826 HC/81,184 PB
Star Wars: Afermath - Life Debt: 31,806 HC/43,027 PB
Star Wars: Aftermath - Empire's End: 29,064 HC/38,339 PB

Wanderers: 17,563 HC/6,408 PB
Book of Accidents: 16,732 HC

You Can Do Anything, Magic Skeleton!: Monster Motivations to Move Your Butt and Get You to Do the Thing: 2,331

I have his comic TPB titles too!

Hyperion: Daddy Issues: 192
Star Wars The Force Awakens: 2,336
Turok Vol 1: Blood Hunt: 57


Merry Christmas you filthy animals.

Huh, I got a hardcover copy of Zer0es from a little free library in the town where my place is up on Cape Cod. I'm surprised that it is so uncommon. How small of a print run will a major publisher actually print? The unfortunate thing is that the book is a discarded copy originally from the actual town library, so my taxes paid for it in the first place. I wonder how many of his books were bought by institutions rather than individuals.

 

[Flexo]

So... who wants Chuck Wendig's sales numbers?

Nothing on his self-published work, but his trad stuff

The Complete Double Dead: 1,864 total

Zer0es 2,408 HC/7,247 PB
Invasive: 1,031 HC/2235 PB

Star Wars: Aftermath: 130,826 HC/81,184 PB
Star Wars: Afermath - Life Debt: 31,806 HC/43,027 PB
Star Wars: Aftermath - Empire's End: 29,064 HC/38,339 PB

Wanderers: 17,563 HC/6,408 PB
Book of Accidents: 16,732 HC

You Can Do Anything, Magic Skeleton!: Monster Motivations to Move Your Butt and Get You to Do the Thing: 2,331

I have his comic TPB titles too!

Hyperion: Daddy Issues: 192
Star Wars The Force Awakens: 2,336
Turok Vol 1: Blood Hunt: 57


Merry Christmas you filthy animals.

Damn. I've had more people read my shitty fan fictions.

 

[Mysterious Girlfriend X]

Spoiler

The first hypothesis would involve as much intake of soy as George had of fentanyl.

That fucking face of his is just the embodiment of the "insufferable nerd" stereotype. That is the face of someone who watched Mythbusters and decided to base his entire personality around it.

 

[Save the Loli]

Chuck the Cuck's sales numbers are pretty much what I thought. Aftermath got a bunch of press because it was the first big Disney EU Star Wars book and basically positioned like the Thrawn Trilogy was to the original EU, turns out it was such fucking shit most people just skipped the next two and EVERYONE skipped the rest of Chuck's miserable output. The drop between books 2 and 3 aren't as bad as I thought. I guess that's your core market of Star Wars consoomers, not normal Star Wars fans or more casual audiences.

My only question is how these numbers compare to the usual Star Wars EU book like the last of the old EU novels or some other Disney EU junk. I bet Tim Zahn's Disney EU stuff outsells Chuck handily even though it's not very good.

The rest of it is a fucking joke, especially those comics. Double digit sales numbers LMAO, no wonder why nobody reads American comics these days. Even a shitty writer like Patrick S. Tomlinson could probably equal Pat's performance here.

The Silmarillion: ~1 million copies.

That sounds too low considering it's been in print for what, 50 years and several editions? Wikipedia says Children of Hurin, a posthumously published part of Tolkien's legendarium, has over 1.2 million copies in circulation, and the Silmarillion is far more famous than that.