Buy Your Way Onto a Best Seller List?

About this video

Dale discusses whether buying your way onto a bestseller list is ethical, using indie thriller author Mark Dawson as the case, while stressing he is a Dawson fan and this is not a takedown. Dale recounts, from Dawson’s own podcast account, that Dawson’s book reached number 13 on the Sunday Times bestseller list after selling roughly 1,300 copies, despite limited UK hardcover distribution during the pandemic. Dawson polled readers, found about 400 who wanted a hardcover (with an autographed copy offered), and ordered 400 copies through a local bookstore to ship to readers himself, at a cost Dale states as 3,600 pounds for the copies alone, plus shipping. Dale says the follow-up podcast reported the book reached number 8, but Dawson reported no noticeable bump in sales, saying promotional tools, not the chart itself, sell books. Coverage in the Guardian and a Twitter backlash followed, with some authors calling the move disingenuous, and Dale notes Dawson subsequently left Twitter. Dale puts the other side: traditional publishers have long used similar practices, the copies were bought for readers rather than stockpiled, and Dawson discussed it openly on his podcast. He also notes the affordability gap — Dale cites average UK author earnings of about 10,500 pounds a year — and asks whether spoken-for reader copies should be bought in-store or wholesale, and why bestseller lists allow the practice if it distorts the rankings.

Key takeaways

• Dale recounts that Mark Dawson bought 400 copies of his own book through a local bookstore to fulfill reader orders, moving from number 13 to number 8 on the Sunday Times list
• According to Dale’s account of Dawson’s podcast, Dawson reported no noticeable sales bump from making the list
• Dale argues the copies were spoken for by readers who could not otherwise get the hardcover, and that Dawson disclosed the purchase openly on his podcast
• Critics quoted in the discussion called publicizing the ranking disingenuous, and Guardian coverage and social-media backlash followed
• Dale frames the open question as whether in-store bulk purchases for readers should count toward bestseller rankings, especially given how few authors could afford to do it

Episode details: published August 4, 2020 · 9:22 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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