"It's a secret sauce," she said.
February 27, 2013 9:41 AM   Subscribe

Authors Buy Way Onto Best-Seller Lists

But the short moment of glory doesn't always occur by luck alone. In the cases mentioned above, 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. [...]

Precisely how it goes about that is unclear, though, and there is discomfort among some in the publishing industry who worry that preorders are being corralled and bulk purchases are being made to appear like single sales to qualify for inclusion in best-seller lists, which normally wouldn't count such sales.

The story makes it sound like this is a new thing, but ResultSource has been around for a while (previously). In 2010, This American Life and Capitol Weekly showed how California gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner used it to become a "bestselling author."
posted by not_the_water (3 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: blammo -- cortex



 
Alas, this is a duplicate
posted by k5.user at 9:42 AM on February 27, 2013


Damn. Sorry.
posted by not_the_water at 9:44 AM on February 27, 2013


Same WSJ story, two different URLs. Kill it, mods!
posted by not_the_water at 9:46 AM on February 27, 2013


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