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action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /srv/users/sandra/apps/sandra/public/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114My favorite newspaper, The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, ran a fascinating article recently on how some authors are buying their way to best-seller lists. “Getting to the Top<\/a>“* by Jeffrey Trachtenberg details how several business book authors contracted with ResultSource<\/a> to get their books on best-seller lists published by the Journal<\/em> and The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n The authors give ResultSource money to buy thousands of books in a very short period of time from retailers that include Amazon.com. The sudden artificially-created\u00a0volume can land the book on a best-seller list for a week, after which sales typically fall off because there isn’t any real, organic demand for the book.<\/p>\n But the author can say he or she was on a best-seller list. This can supposedly generate income from higher speaking and consulting fees.<\/p>\n Or, as ResultSource explains it on its website, “. . .\u00a0having a Bestseller (sic)\u00a0initiates incredible growth\u2014exponentially increasing the demand for your thought leadership, skyrocketing your speaking itinerary and value, giving you a national (even global) spotlight, and solidifying your author brand as the foremost leader in your niche.”<\/p>\n But\u00a0where is the proof? There’s none in the article and I can’t find it on the ResultSource website. Common sense and experience\u00a0suggest that higher speaking or consulting fees are likely to be generated by big buzz in general\u00a0rather\u00a0than by a one-week guest appearance on a best-seller list. (Not surprisingly, the company also provides speaker marketing services.)<\/p>\n Still, I can see the appeal, especially for those who write business books and rely on speaking and consulting income. Would I do it myself? Nope. I’d get no satisfaction from telling my mother that I spent my way to a best-seller. Should you? Would you?\u00a0Only you know the answers.<\/p>\n I was on the receiving end of a similar, but different,\u00a0campaign for Get Rich Click<\/em><\/a>. The hardcover appeared in my mailbox from Barnes & Noble with a message on the packing slip asking me to talk about it among my social networks. Not long after I received it in the mail, I attended a conference where it was a free give-away in the exhibit hall.<\/p>\n The book was self-published (first clue: the word “copywrite” on the copyright page), so the finances were probably different from those in the WSJ<\/em> article published by traditional publishers.<\/p>\n The cost to work with ResultSource? Tens of thousands of dollars. You pay for the books the company buys on your behalf — and hopefully you can fund that purchase with pre-orders for the book — and you pay the company a fee for its services. One of the authors interviewed for the WSJ<\/em> article\u00a0spent $55,000 for books and an additional fee in the range of $20,000 to $30,000.<\/p>\n I think there were three interesting details in the article; each one tells us something about this approach:<\/p>\n I’ve noted that I wouldn’t do this, but I’m wondering about you. If you could afford it, would you hire ResultsSource for a best-seller campaign? What’s your take on this approach?<\/em><\/p>\n *Special thanks to Susan Weiner <\/a>for the article link.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My favorite newspaper, The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, ran a fascinating article recently on how some authors are buying their way to best-seller lists. “Getting to the Top<\/a>“* by Jeffrey Trachtenberg details how several business book authors contracted with ResultSource<\/a> to get their books on best-seller lists published by the Journal<\/em> and The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n The authors give ResultSource money to buy thousands of books in a very short period of time from retailers that include Amazon.com. The sudden artificially-created volume can land the book on a best-seller list for a week, after which sales typically fall off because there isn’t any real, organic demand for the book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,20,157,11],"tags":[270,271,272,273],"class_list":["post-3735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-events","category-news","category-stuff-that-annoys-me","category-tactics","tag-best-seller","tag-best-seller-campaign","tag-best-seller-list","tag-bestseller"],"yoast_head":"\n“My book is a best-seller! Pay me more!”<\/h3>\n
Would you do this?<\/h3>\n
Can you afford it?<\/h3>\n
\n