Buying Bestsellers: A New Old Practice

I periodically use the New York Times as a resource for research and book footnote citations, but am not a daily reader.

So a friend first alerted me to the “pay to play” method (spotlighted in mid-April) used to boost California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s memoir onto the legendary newspaper’s bestseller list.

“Here’s one way to get on it,” emailed Rob Mitchell, author of Castaway Kid—a title that has quietly sold more than 400,000 copies and been translated into seven languages since its 2007 release. (I did a substantive edit of the first draft of his manuscript.)

Rob’s note included mention of Newsom’s Campaign for Democracy Political Action Committee launching a campaign last November. It asked donors to contribute any amount to the PAC to receive Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery when it released Feb. 24.

It succeeded: the PAC paid close to $1.6 million to buy and distribute copies of the book through the donation program.

Turns out the committee’s 67,000 bulk-purchase copies accounted for nearly 69 percent of the 97,400 copies sold in its first eight weeks.

“That is $22 a book,” Rob commented. “Now it might be tempting to wonder why the NYT didn’t see through this—but again, it is the NYT—so in my opinion … they were more interested in fluffing Newsom than calling out the reality of these sales volumes NOT being 67,000 true individual purchases.”

A Non-Fatal Dagger

To its credit, the Times’ story included a comment from a spokeswoman for the newspaper. She said when they have reason to believe that sales of a book include a mix of organic and bulk sales, the book’s best-seller rank is accompanied by a dagger: “That’s what we did with the Newsom book.”

A spokesman didn’t hide from the practice. Nathan Click said the PAC netted more money from contributors drawn by the book offer than it cost to provide the 67,000 copies.

“We were thrilled with the response,” Click told the Times, adding later, “As it turns out, the tactic more than paid for itself.”

While outlets like TMZ, Fox News, and others covered the story, it didn’t attract the kind of kerfuffle I can imagine accompanying a similar effort. Especially if it involved President Donald Trump or a member of his administration.

I say that not as a fan of Trump’s, but as an observation that the selective outrage driving the national news media’s narratives on politics and other issues often tilts left.

As a former newspaper reporter and editor, I don’t think it should lean in either direction.

Déjà vu All Over Again

A sad footnote to Newsom’s shenanigan is it’s nothing new. The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times ran stories in 2013-14 about ways of “juicing” sales. Yours truly wrote a story for the Jan/Feb. 2015 issue of Christianity Today about high-profile pastors and others using identical tactics.

The company responsible for many Christian author campaigns was “simply doing what others have been doing,” said one publishing executive who has since retired.

“They are not the ones who invented the whole thing. They are just one of a number of agencies or services that do that kind of thing to move books through retail channels.”

Notably, the company concerned fizzled into history after publicity about its methods surfaced.

So, Newsom’s method is nothing new. Solomon put it best in Ecclesiastes 1:9: “What has been is the same as what will be, and what has been done is the same as what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun” (MEV).

What does this all mean? Swallow forthcoming reports of Newsom’s “popularity” with huge grains of salt.