An author bought his own book to get higher on bestseller lists. Is that fair?

Author Mark Dawson has attracted criticism after bulk buying his own book gave him a high chart position. But that isn’t breaking any rulesFor any author, being able to describe yourself as a bona fide bestseller is key to conferring your career with a certain gravitas – and will often bring you even more sales. In the UK, while most book charts are tallied by Nielsen BookScan, the Sunday Times bestseller list – like the New York Times chart in the US – has become the gold standard. But making the bestseller list isn’t necessarily as straightforward as tallying sales. Not all is fair in romance and war (and other genres) when it comes to getting to the top of the charts.Take the case of Mark Dawson, a British writer who just over a week ago hit No 8 on the Sunday Times hardback list with his thriller The Cleaner, released by the independent publisher Welbeck at the end of June. This is a great achievement for any author or small publishing house, but Dawson had done something remarkable: he bought 400 copies of his own book, at a cost of £3,600, to push his sales high enough to make the top 10. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-07-20 15:59:35 UTC ]

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‘It was a classic case of naive creatives, not protecting what they’d got’

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[ The Guardian | 2015-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Transworld pair top fiction charts

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Halt sales of Jonasson bestseller, court tells UK publisher

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[ The Guardian | 2015-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Third Cormoran Strike novel for the autumn

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Print Units Rose 3% in the First Quarter

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Colouring books for adults top Amazon bestseller list

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[ The Guardian | 2015-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amy Poehler's 'Yes Please' continues to thrive on bestseller lists

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-04-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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iBooks Bestseller List: ‘Steve Jobs’ Lands at #2

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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iBooks Bestsellers: Hawkins Back On Top

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'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' stays strong on bestseller lists

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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