Can we discuss possible astroturfing for Project Hail Mary?

Submitted by dorodorodoroz1 t3_y6aemn in books

If you can navigate Reddit's terrible search engine to find "Project Hail Mary," you'll see there's a post about it in an almost biweekly basis. Look, I'm sure it's a fine read, but to me this seems inorganic.

I don't think it's wrong for authors to promote their work - we gotta pay rent somehow. But for an open forum like r/books, I think it's important for users to know when they're being targeted by a marketing effort. Also, I'm not accusing everyone who posts or comments positively about Project Hail Mary of being a bot. Astroturfing can and does lead to genuine discussions.

This isn't a direct response to the most recent post about the book, but moreso a pattern I've seen for the past couple of months.

If this post is out of line, mods please feel free to delete.

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k_albasi t1_iso5h00 wrote

It's possible but also lots of people start a new thread about books they like and Project Hail Mary is hugely popular with the Reddit demo.

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McGilla_Gorilla t1_isofxq5 wrote

Even the prose feels reddit-y. Not surprising at all that it’s popular with this group.

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RunDNA t1_iso86cj wrote

It's not astroturfing. It's just a very popular book among the Reddit demographic. (I read it the week it came out and loved it.)

It's like The Count of Monte Cristo, which also generates a lot of posts. Monte Cristo is a good demonstration of how just because there is a lot of posts, doesn't mean it's astroturfing.

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Keffpie t1_iso81nc wrote

I don't think it's astroturfing. It's a genuinely good book, and the people who didn't read it at launch probably discovered it through a friend or randomly, and want to gush over it. My wife read it after me nagging her for a year, and then she would not shut up about it. She's not a reddit-person, but she definitely posted about it on Instagram and Facebook.

Another book with the same pattern is Piranesi - that's not as "available", but it's just as deserved.

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farseer4 t1_iso8anq wrote

This seems unlikely. The book was published almost a year and a half ago. An astroturfing campaign would make much more sense for a recently-published book.

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deck_hand t1_iso835j wrote

What I see is people discovering this wonderful book and wanting to talk about it. I've seen similar frequent posts about other books, but I've never thought that such an outpouring of praise is "astroturfing."

By the way, I loved the book, too.

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CliffExcellent123 t1_isom49c wrote

Andy Weir was always very popular on this sub, don't think there's anything suspicious here

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Mynock33 t1_iso5iuc wrote

🙄 Got any examples of such posts?

Because a post "every other week" in a sub like this doesn't feel "inorganic" to me, especially considering it's a popular book by a popular author who has a style that is easily digestible by many readers.

While I'm sure marketing efforts like this do exist to some degree, you're coming off a bit paranoid here.

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lowdownfool t1_iso9vx3 wrote

I feel like Reddit - and other places on the internet - really want me to read Three Body Problem. It's everywhere I look.

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ebState t1_isoi2h3 wrote

it's fine, pretty okay scifi. if you're only gonna read a couple books a year you might skip it, but if you're a reader it's worth it.

Not exactly a glowing review, but it is what it is. I didn't regret it but I also haven't started Dark Forest after 2 or 3 years.

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felagund t1_iso9eod wrote

I think it's the sort of book that new readers of SF can get very enthusiastic about. There's a certain sort of person—male, very linear, STEM-oriented, possibly on the spectrum, not relationship-oriented—who comes across this book and is like YES THIS IS FOR ME. And gods bless them, it sure is: the book is about a guy solving problems with the help of someone else who might as well be a robot. No relationships, none of that emotional feeling crap except for AWESOME, just Competence Porn. Extinction-level threat to humanity? Just give smart people dictatorial authority!

My point is, here, that paranoia is its own reward: consider that this isn't astroturfing or a conspiracy, but rather that this book is suuuuper appealing to a demographic hilariously overrepresented on Reddit.

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scarpux t1_iso83eq wrote

Not everyone reads the same books at the same time. It was a good book that people enjoy reading so they want to share the excitement when they finish it. It's definitely not astroturfing. I just got around to reading it a couple months ago. I thought about making a post but held off. Then a few days later someone else put one up. It's a totally natural pattern for books to spread by word of mouth like that.

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Gigantosaurous t1_iso3yri wrote

Umm... Do you think astroturfing is limited to this one book?

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twodesserts t1_isob1kw wrote

I agree that we should always be vigilant to being played by corporation's marketing, but since you haven't actually read the book it feels odd for you to post this.

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BookWorm-Rockstar t1_iso6zrf wrote

Such stupid post. Andy doesn't need people to make reddit post to talk about his book. Let people enjoy what they like

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throwaway2332464 t1_isoa60q wrote

Books just come out in paperback (in the UK at least, not sure on other countries release dates) so naturally a lot of people are picking it up and talking about. I got my copy last week but haven't got round to starting it yet.

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NefariousnessOne1859 t1_isph1rq wrote

Ah I figured it was doing the rounds on TikTok which is why everyone was reading it suddenly 😂

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Hellblazer1138 t1_isqz15n wrote

All the posts I see here about the book make me not want to read or listen to it. I wasn't that impressed with The Martian when I read it back in 2014.

Edit: Year fix.

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Insatiable_Pervert t1_isoaz0y wrote

I understand how you feel. Biweekly posts is being generous. I swear there’s a Post every other day. I guarantee there’ll be one later this afternoon.

Andy Weir hit the literary jackpot with this novel. This level of success is rare. There are over 100,000 reviews on Amazon for project Hail Mary. I don’t think even Stephen King has a book with that many reviews.

But no one can control the market. The fates, destiny, whatever, it all came together for Andy Weir and this novel. And it’s not over yet. Once the movie version comes out we’ll be going through this all over again with an entirely new audience.

The writing style is very reminiscent of a blog post. And that’s probably why it’s so popular. It’s an easy read. Seven words would be considered a long sentence in this book. I find the humor cringe inducing, but apparently a lot of people connected with it.

What can you do? For those of us who did not enjoy the novel, it is not only bad, it is terrible. This is what people consider the greatest science-fiction novel of all time? Best book they’ve read all year? Makes me wonder what else they’re reading. Which book or books ranks below project Hail Mary in their eyes?

And to the people who love this book, I’m sorry for being negative. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Whatever gets people reading is a good thing. But it does get a little frustrating seeing this book constantly mentioned in this sub.

Anyway hope everybody has a great day!

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AlunWeaver t1_isocl9r wrote

Yeah, I don't give much credence to the idea that astroturfing is at play here. This is simply a very bad book that a lot of people like.

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ActonofMAM t1_isp6uq1 wrote

I enjoyed both this book and the previous "The Martian." ("Artemis" was a swing and a miss IMO.) I'm not at all male, linear, or STEM oriented, but I find this one quite readable. That may be because I cut my teeth on Isaac Asimov's stilted prose, but there's a lot of good stuff here.

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DanielNoWrite t1_isoft1x wrote

If you're going to speculate like that, you need to provide specific examples of suspect posts and users.

As others have said, it seems unlikely someone is paying to promote a book that's more than a year old. And if they were, I think we'd probably see more action than "biweekly posts."

If you can show that the users making these posts have strange behavior patterns indicating they're bots or paid promoters: Interesting.

Otherwise: meh.

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minimalist_coach t1_isohtkb wrote

I use Libby and it took months for me to get it after it stayed on my "looks interesting" list for months. I found it delightful and wanted to talk to anyone about it when I finished. I don't think I posted here, but I've definitely commented on several of the posts.

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seattle_architect t1_isoko5y wrote

The writing is immature even for a young adults.

I finally understood why Andy Weir is a terrible writer:

“Andrew Taylor Weir (born June 16, 1972) is an American novelist and former computer programmer.”

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ChipsAhoiMcCoy t1_ispfd4z wrote

Honestly, just scroll past the man. It doesn’t take that much effort to scroll past a post and the people who want to participate in the conversation in the comments get the opportunity to.

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mzk24601 t1_isq2gae wrote

Because of this post, more people will read it, and some of them might post about it.

Is your post part of the AstroTurfing?

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9998000 t1_isof161 wrote

All of reddit is astroturfing.

Either enjoy the ride or move on.

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kharmatika t1_isq7grt wrote

I feel like astroturfing from a middling-successful sci fi author, about a year old book, seems far less likely than several browsers of this forum, seeing a glowing review of a book and then. Yanno. Reading it.

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