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Sci-Fi & Fantasy Author Fonda Lee Criticizes Barnes & Noble Stocking J.R.R. Tolkien & Robert Jordan Books: 'We Are Competing With Dead Guys'


Credit: Twitter

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Sci-fi and Fantasy author Fonda Lee, who's best known for her Green Bone Saga, criticized Barnes & Noble for stocking books by popular fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan.

Over on Twitter, she shared a photo of Barnes & Noble Fantasy & Science Fiction shelves with the caption: "This is what modern fantasy writers are up against. In my local B&N, most authors are lucky to find a copy of their book, super lucky if its face out. There are 3.5 shelves for Tolkien. 1.5 for Jordan. Here's who we compete against for shelf space: not each other, but dead guys."

Just in case you've been living on another planet, J.R.R. Tolkien is the author of TheLord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and Robert Jordan is the author of the Wheel of Time series that Brandon Sanderson concluded.

In the photo shared by Lee, you will notice that Tolkien's books only take up about two-and-a-half shelves, not the three-and-a-half she asserts, and Jordan's Wheel of Time series appears to only occupy a shelf-and-a-half, and there are only 29 books. Since the Wheel of Time series only has 14 books, this means there are only around two copies for each novel.

Lee goes on to decry that these popular books were taking up so much space at Barnes & Noble, and she calls for support for local book stores.

Fonda says that Barnes & Noble should be a "place of discovery":

What do you think about Fonda's criticism of Barnes & Noble's way of stocking books by Tolkien and Jordan?

Read more: The Lord of The Rings: Gollum Announced For 2021 Release

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