Posted on July 22, 2020 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
For authors in the United Kingdom, landing on the Sunday Times bestseller list is the equivalent of reaching the New York Times bestseller list.
So one can't blame Mark Dawson for working to achieve that goal.
However ... book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan can call into question his methods for attaining it and has, in fact, retracted the top-ten list in which his book The Cleaner appears with a promise of releasing a revised edition.
Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that Dawson, by his own admission, bought four hundred copies of his own book to crack the top ten list.
To be clear, he explained on an episode of his podcast, upon realizing his book was within reach of the top ten, he emailed his US readers and asked whether any of them would like a hardback copy of the book.
When about four hundred replied affirmatively, Dawson fulfilled his end of the bargain and bought them up.
He and his publisher said in a statement on Tuesday that they stood behind the ethics of their move, but that they would respect any decision from Nielsen to adjust the rankings.
Dawson added on Twitter that if he had truly been looking to game the system, he wouldn't have disclosed the mass purchase on a podcast.
Related posts
Categories: Today in Books