Authors claiming to be "bestsellers"

juniper said:

Add "award winning" to the list of claims made by oh-so many ... awards by bloggers, writers groups, hastily-assembled groups of unknowns ... meaningless ...

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Exactly what I was about to say. There are countless authors who prefix their names with "Award-winning author..."

After investigation, you find out it's an 'award' from some no-mark blog written by someone in the back of beyond.

Yes, it's good someone out there likes your book but a blogger award that's little more than a mate backslapping you is hardly the Booker, is it?

... any writer who misleads readers or falsely advertises should be flogged with a stick.

Harlequin referred to my Outlanders series as "best-selling" several times over the years...I was never sure of their criteria, but I occasionally call myself "the best-selling author of" for promotional purposes.

I figure if somebody has a problem with it, they can challenge Harlequin.

To add the the award winning author debate...the bane of my existence is the readers favorite award winners. They run around saying award winner yet they paid $85 for that gold sticker.

I've seen that on a few publisher sites, like "Reader's Favorite". Now that I really think about I think I can count more times I've seen "Best Selling Author" than I can remember the actual author's name. I honestly consider it a marketing plot more than anything, no offense to anyone who uses it. Kind of like "A lot of people bought this, and you should too." type of thinking. Saying "Best Selling" is kind of like putting a "(Enter name of Book Club here)'s Favorite Novel/Novel of the Month/Week" in my opinion. Besides I think "Best Selling" is one of those it's good and it's bad type of things. I mean if you really think about it Stephenie Meyer is Best Selling Author because of her books. "Best Selling" doesn't guarantee it's a good book, just that a lot of people bought it supposedly.

And as someone said, unless it's USA Today, New York Times, Huffington Post, or so on, you really don't see where it says these writers are best selling, just that they're "Best Selling".

While I never made the NYT or USA Today BSL, I can lay claim to being the best selling media tie-in writer for my publisher for 2004. *grin*

I found that out when my former editor-in-chief wrote a recommendation for me for college and included that information. I was pleased (and aggravated that the publisher declined to go back for a second printing, even though we had more than enough orders to justify it.)

I am the best-selling author in my house.

I don't really give a flop if an author is a bestseller, so they aren't gaining any credibility with me.

I recently found out that an online friend has sold over 35,000 copies of her self-published ebooks.

I thought that sounded like a heck of a lot.

If she describes herself as a bestselling author, she's never done so anywhere I've seen it.

skylark said:

I recently found out that an online friend has sold over 35,000 copies of her self-published ebooks.

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Go, your friend! That's a fabulous result. And like most actually successful people, she doesn't feel the need for fake laurels, as you point out.

Twitter - another medium for shameless self-promotion and marketing gimmicks. Everybody is a best selling author in their mind. Or even a legend. Too bad some don't even have a book...

Chekurtab said:

Too bad some don't even have a book...

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It took me a few minutes to realize that you were being funny. I was just about to ask why someone would think they were best selling and not have a book.