There are still 8 hours left to order Refaat's book and have it count toward the NYT list

The New York Times’ bestseller list counts any order that comes in before Saturday at midnight. So if you’ve been meaning to order Refaat Alareer’s new posthumously published book “If I Must Die,” you have about eight hours to do it. We are stunningly close to making the list.

The book is out of stock everywhere, but you can still order it here, and those orders will count, even though you won’t get the book for some time.

One word of caution: I strongly advise you DO NOT order now from Amazon. Amazon is filled with scammers and they noticed that there was viral energy around this book, so now a bunch of fraudulent sellers are trying to capitalize on it. Amazon has no incentive to stop this activity, since it’s effectively a monopoly and they make money either way. And they face no consequences for allowing con-artists to flourish.

My recommendation is to purchase it through Bookshop.org, which is powered by independent booksellers. And forward this to everyone you know. If you’re rich — or feel rich — order nine copies and give them away.

As I mentioned before, to be clear, we have no commercial interest in Refaat’s book, which is published by OR Books, with royalties going to his surviving family. We just want to see it live in eternity as a New York Times bestseller, a small sliver of justice in such a cruel world. Given the number of sales already generated, there is a very good chance it will be on the list, which comes out every Wednesday evening.

If it’s not on the list, we will rely on our sources inside the publishing industry to determine how many books were sold by the ones that did make the list, and we’ll publicize our findings. If his book belonged on the list based on sales but was deliberately kept off, that’s something the public will learn.

But let’s not make it even close: Please order a copy before midnight.

P.S. We don’t send out an email for every piece of reporting we do, for obvious reasons. To keep up with the latest, make sure you’re following us on Twitter or Bluesky.

P.P.S. This week on Counter Points we interviewed an American leftist who fought for the YPG in Rojava/Syria. His story is fascinating, and I think Drop Site readers will be particularly interested in the way he grappled with making strange bedfellows at times with American bombers. You can watch that here.

P.P.P.S. In yesterday’s article on the looming Amazon strike, we called Chris Smalls the president of the ALU. We know he is no longer in that position. That was a brain freeze on our part and it’s been corrected.