Topic: WorldNetDaily
As Richard Bartholomew first noted, WorldNetDaily quietly deleted without explanation an unbylined article complaining that the New York Times won't classify the work of WND buddy and messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn in a more prominent category. The original link to the article returns a 404 error.
Under the headline "N.Y. Times shafts best-selling Christian author – again!" the uncredited author complains that the Times won't list Cahn's new book "The Book of Mysteries," which came out earlier this month, on its fiction bestseller list, whining:
Apparently, the book is too mysterious to classify for the guardians of the New York Times list.
Or maybe they’ve just had enough of Cahn’s domination of their charts every other year.
While “The Book of Mysteries” clearly outsold almost all the competition and appears on multiple bestsellers lists in its first week of release, the New York Times refuses to classify it as fiction, which it is.
Nor will the Times classify it as non-fiction, which it isn’t.
So it sits in a New York Times list limbo – unable to appear because it is unlike most other books with the exception of possibly appearing on a monthly list with the miscellany.
For some reason, WND really, really wants you to know that Cahn is a fiction writer. It emphasizes that "The Book of Mysteries" "consists of 365 stories of short revelations a fictional seeker of biblical wisdom receives on a spiritual one-year journey. The daily insights can thus be read as daily devotionals." It also points out that "all the other best-sellers lists have no problem with the fiction classification of 'The Book of Mysteries.'" Even WND editor and Cahn friend Joseph Farah gets in on the act:
“Ironically,” said Joseph Farah, the producer of Cahn’s “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” and “The Harbinger Man” and WND’s founder, “one of the reasons I was determined to make that movie as a documentary was because of the classification of ‘The Harbinger’ as fiction. While that was a proper classification, given the narrative format, I wanted people to understand that what happened in that book was actually true – simply using fictional characters to make the point. Thus was born ‘The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.'”
Wait, "The Harbinger" is fiction? We don't recall WND ever promoting it that way. Even the WND online store listing for "The Harbinger" states no fiction designatio, nor does it sell it that way: "Hidden in an ancient biblical prophecy from Isaiah, the mysteries revealed in "The Harbinger" are so precise that they foretold recent American events down to the exact days. It’s all decoded by the author in convincing fashion. The revelations are so specific that even the most hardened skeptics will find them hard to dismiss. It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller with one exception ... IT’S REAL."
Also, the only book listed under the WND store's "fiction" category is "Pilgrim's Progress."
All of this may very well be the reason for why WND mysteriously disappeared this article. The normally loquacious Cahn "declined to be quoted for the article," WND states. Bartholomew suggests that Cahn "didn’t want to risk antagonizing the New York Times," but it's also entirely possible that WND's heavy insistence on how his books are works of fiction didn't sit well with Cahn, who has a reputation as a self-proclaimed biblical scholar and akin-to-prophet to protect (and trade on).
And WND most definitely doesn't want to piss off Cahn, on whose coattails WND has been riding and may actually be WND's most consistent revenue stream -- important for a company with serious financial problems. While it doesn't publish Cahn's books, it has made two films based on him and his work. As a blurb link to the WND store inserted into the article notes, "Jonathan Cahn’s always a No. 1 bestseller in the WND Superstore."
There's nothing noticably false in the article, unlike too many other WND articles. Our guess is that, for whatever reason -- but likely either harm to reputation or desire not to hack off the Times -- Cahn wanted the article taken down, and whatever Cahn wants from WND, we're pretty sure Cahn gets.
But before it goes away for good from the Google cache, below is a copy of the deleted WND article, saved for posterity.
* * *
N.Y. TIMES SHAFTS BEST-SELLING CHRISTIAN AUTHOR – AGAIN!
Refuses to recognize fiction label, previously refusing to acknowledge nonfiction categorization
WASHINGTON – Jonathan Cahn, the two-time New York Times best-selling author, knows what it’s like fighting the odds as a Christian to make the vaunted list – despite having the sales to warrant it.
He made it twice with his first two books, 2012’s “The Harbinger,” which remained on the New York Times’ fiction bestsellers list for more than 100 weeks, and 2014’s “The Mystery of the Shemitah,” which made the list for more than 12 weeks. But the messianic rabbi’s readers won’t be seeing his latest release on the Sept. 26 list.
It’s not for lack of sales for “The Book of Mysteries,” which came out Sept. 8.
Apparently, the book is too mysterious to classify for the guardians of the New York Times list.
Or maybe they’ve just had enough of Cahn’s domination of their charts every other year.
While “The Book of Mysteries” clearly outsold almost all the competition and appears on multiple bestsellers lists in its first week of release, the New York Times refuses to classify it as fiction, which it is.
Nor will the Times classify it as non-fiction, which it isn’t.
So it sits in a New York Times list limbo – unable to appear because it is unlike most other books with the exception of possibly appearing on a monthly list with the miscellany.WND attempted to contact the New York Times for comment, but had not received a response at the time of this report.
However, sources in the publishing industry have shared some of the brewing controversy details.
It begins with an unusual book.
“The Book of Mysteries” is indeed hard to pigeonhole in traditional publishing. It consists of 365 stories of short revelations a fictional seeker of biblical wisdom receives on a spiritual one-year journey. The daily insights can thus be read as daily devotionals. The New York Times reportedly made this point in talks with Cahn’s publisher – as a disqualifier to the traditional fiction classification.
But, then again, the New York Times did not conclude it was simply a devotional. And, if it were, would that disqualify any Christian devotional from making the list?
Cahn himself, who worked with WND Films on the best-selling faith film of 2013 and 2014, “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” a documentary-style adaptation of “The Harbinger,” declined to be quoted for the article.
The New York Times has a long history of problems counting Christian books for its celebrated list.
In 1980, the New York Times set out to learn what the best-selling book of the 1970s had been. Much to the shock and amazement of the editors, it was Christian evangelist Hal Lindsey’s “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which had never made the Times best-seller list for a single week or a single year during the decade but sold tens of millions, outselling all other fiction and nonfiction books alike for that time period.
So the paper set out to change its metrics for calculating best-sellers, which still remain as mysterious to the public and the publishing industry as “The Book of Mysteries” appears to be for the New York Times.
“Ironically,” said Joseph Farah, the producer of Cahn’s “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” and “The Harbinger Man” and WND’s founder, “one of the reasons I was determined to make that movie as a documentary was because of the classification of ‘The Harbinger’ as fiction. While that was a proper classification, given the narrative format, I wanted people to understand that what happened in that book was actually true – simply using fictional characters to make the point. Thus was born ‘The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.'”Farah’s publishing company, WND Books, has produced the highest percentage of New York Times bestsellers of any publisher in the world over the last 15 years. About 10 percent of WND Books releases over that time period have made the grade.
“I’ve been studying the list for decades,” says Farah. “I worked with Hal Lindsey when the New York Times discovered his book sold more than any other book in the decade of the 1970s. I worked with other best-selling authors as a collaborator through the 1990s. And in 2001, I launched WND Books. So that’s nearly 40 years of experience with the New York Times best-sellers list.”
The problems started for the New York Times calculations when they didn’t measure sales in Christian bookstores, he says. There’s also still a lot of secrecy about which bookstores they sample for sales.
“It’s almost like the New York Times wants its list to be mysterious,” Farah said. “It’s a prestigious list, but just because your book sells more copies than others doesn’t mean your book will make it on the list. That’s always been true and still is today.”
Meanwhile, all the other best-sellers lists have no problem with the fiction classification of “The Book of Mysteries.”
The Wall Street Journal lists it No. 7.
Publisher’s Weekly has it as No. 4.
USA Today has it as No. 29, but among all books of every classification – fiction, non-fiction, etc.
But here’s the real surprise. While claiming the book is not fiction, it also won’t classify it in the list’s “miscellaneous” category. Why? Reportedly because the Times maintains that the book is fiction after all.
There were only three hardcover fiction books that sold 15,000 or more copies in the first week “The Book of Mysteries” was in release. Cahn’s book was one of them. It sold more than double 12 of the titles that made the New York Times best-sellers list for hardcover fiction that week. It sold triple the number of copies of seven of the top 20 hardcover fiction titles on the list.
It’s not the first time Cahn has experienced categorization issues with the Times.
His second book, “The Mystery of the Shemitah,” was clearly a non-fiction title. However, the New York Times refused to consider it as such, instead, classifying it in its “how to, advice, miscellaneous” category. It apparently didn’t hurt sales.
