I’m not going to get into the old way of getting around the best-selling system, which was made popular both in the publishing of books and music with mass quantities of the product bought by the publishing house or label themselves to hit the bestseller list, just to be returned after the period had ended.

What I want to cover is the new way to screw the system—let’s call it fake best seller 2.0. Amazon has a huge amount of clout in the world today and their best-seller list updates hourly if not more frequently. One unruly author figured out that if he sold a small amount of books in a short amount of time the book could temporarily hit a best-seller list on Amazon, and then the author could claim that the book is a best seller.

So then the avalanche started. Authors created best-seller programs where they focused on selling as many books as possible in as small a window as possible, rather than spending months focusing their promotion to hit the New York Times best-seller list.¹¹¹ The other trick was focusing on a sublist of the best-seller lists, not to get on the main best-seller list, but a subsection of a subsection. So an author would rank number eight on Amazon for the best-selling book on marketing to people with red hair on Wednesdays in New Hampshire, and because that book category has few books published in it, the book is then called a best seller. The author then goes out and hits the newsletter lists and the streets claiming he or she is a best-selling author.

Then along came the consultants who, for a fee from $2,000 to $5,000 and more, would guarantee best-seller status if you pay them for it. What they don’t tell you is that the majority of the time the book won’t be on the Amazon main best-seller list but a deep sublist. So are the authors outright lying that their books are best sellers? Maybe not fully. But to use the term that means one thing and working the system to make it mean another is at the least inauthentic and at the worst manipulative. There is no denying that authors want to sell books, they want the recognition of best-seller status, including the guy who wrote this little book you’re reading right now. But you won’t see a best-seller sticker on this book, unless it actually becomes a real one.¹¹²