YA title chart-bombs NYT bestseller list

Cobalt Jade · Aug 27, 2017

Moderators, please move if this isn't the proper category.

Who has been following this saga of a new author, new publishing company, and its scheme to dominate the bestseller list by placing large orders in multiple bookstores across the nation? Pretty heady and Machiavellian stuff.

Marissa D · Aug 27, 2017

There's some discussion here... http://absolutewrite.com/forums/sho...nking-about-buying-your-way-onto-the-NYT-list

I watched it unfolding on Twitter--it was something.

Sage · Aug 27, 2017

By "large orders," it's orders of 29ish books. Because 30 or more, for B&N, at least, is a bulk sale, so it gets counted differently. The author and/or publisher and/or director were very careful in how they gamed the system. They also could cancel any orders up to delivery, and there was no stock to deliver, so this was almost certainly a short-term investment for the sole purpose of getting to call the book "#1 NYT Bestseller" when marketing the movie that was the author's true goal.

Worth noting that the book was kicked off the list hours after some YA authors first questioned it, did detective work to figure out what was going on, and gave leads for the NYT to follow up on and verify.

There is also a thread on it in the YA forum.

The most comprehensive account of this probably occurs here: http://www.pajiba.com/book_reviews/...y-onto-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list.php

JetFueledCar · Aug 27, 2017

My favorite thing about those articles is the Tweet at the end of the first link:

Why would you attempt to pull a con on a community made up of hundreds of thousands of Meddling Kids

Old Hack · Aug 27, 2017

As this is already being discussed elsewhere on AW I'm going to lock this thread.

YA title chart-bombs NYT bestseller list

Cobalt Jade

Marissa D

Scribe of the girls in the basement

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

JetFueledCar

tiny hedgehog

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman