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Monday, February 25, 2013

Books Bestseller Status Can Be Bought

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 12:45 PM

The Wall Street Journal recently learned that authors can buy their way onto bestseller lists. Sometimes the books' sales plunge as much as 99% the week after they hit the lists, but every once in a while, the sales goose transforms into lasting success for the author.

...the authors hired a marketing firm that purchased books ahead of publication date, creating a spike in sales that landed titles on the lists. The marketing firm, San Diego-based ResultSource, charges thousands of dollars for its services in addition to the cost of the books, according to authors interviewed.

As ResultSource's website points out, hitting best-seller lists can mean fame, and potentially lucrative consulting assignments.

This isn't anything new, really. Conservative books often wind up on the bestseller lists because think-tanks, campaigns, and other political organizations buy the books in bulk and give them away to people who attend events. (I am a "proud" owner of a copy of No Apology simply because I attended the Republican National Convention last year.) If people want to be outraged by ResultSource, they should look into the way political groups have been tipping the scales for decades now.

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

Posted by fauxcrye on February 25, 2013 at 12:57 PM

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.

Posted by --MC on February 25, 2013 at 12:57 PM

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.

Posted by Timmytee on February 25, 2013 at 1:01 PM

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.

Posted by passionate_jus on February 25, 2013 at 1:14 PM

@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.

Posted by Fnarf