Didn't followers of Scientology do this same scheme with L. Ron Hubbard's sci-fi works back in the day.

Surprised? Not at all. How else could somebody like Mark Levin get so many of his books on the NYT Bestseller Lists so often? If there weren't PAC money buying those things, he'd sell as many copies as your grandfather's Vantage Press book on his experiences at Iwo Jima.

I remember when L. Ron Hubbard was alive, his SF novels always landed on the NYT List, even though I never heard of them otherwise. Scientologists knew how to scam their way on.

Also, this is why there are tons of political books at libraries all over the nation. One library near me has 10 copies of the same book; there's no way they would have bought ten copies of that book or any book for that matter.

@3, and bookstores that have robots for buyers end up with lots of unsold copies, too. I used to work at a bookstore, and those suckers would sit there for a year without so much as a fingerprint on them until we could return.

Hey, I just thought of a way Blethen can increase his circulation numbers.

See also Billboard charts.

O'Reilly's publisher sends thousands of copies to the troops who have to burn them to get rid of them.

Everyone, please, hands down. Ayn Rand's clone army are the undisputed champs of book sales fraud.

@3: It went on WELL after L. Ron kicked the bucket. I worked retail book sales in the mid-80s, starting a year or two after his death, and there was still a ten-volume series in progress and every one of the damn things hit the bestseller lists instantly.

(I have heard direct accounts, then and after, of stores receiving their orders from Bridge Publications with the price stickers from a competitor still on the dustjackets.)