Handbook for Mortals: How One Author Scammed the NYT Bestseller List, and How a Twitter Community Exposed It

This isn’t directly about self-publishing, but it is related to what we work hard to do, so I’m posting about it.

Over this past weekend, a friend of mine posted an article from The Daily Dot on Facebook about how an author had scammed the New York Times bestseller list. Obviously, I got curious, so I checked it out.  According to the article, the YA community on Twitter had noticed something weird about the NYT YA bestseller list. A new novel that nobody had heard of, Handbook for Mortals by Lani Sarem, had appeared out of nowhere and knocked The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The novel follows a girl with magical abilities who goes to Vegas, works in a magic show, and has a love triangle (that old chestnut. That old I’m-going-to-waste-my-natural-talents-while-doing-one-of-the-biggest-romance-cliches-ever chestnut). Lani Sarem, the author, is described as an actress and former band manager.

Like I said, nobody in the community had heard of the novel, and they got very suspicious when they heard that the book was published by GeekNation, a movie and pop-culture website that just got into publishing last month! And in that time, they put out a book that hit the top of the YA bestseller list? Obviously, some were confused by this, and the community, led by writers and YA enthusiasts Phil Stamper (@stampepk) and Jeremy West (@JeremyWest), started investigating. What they uncovered is mind-boggling.

Turns out, there’s practically no physical copies of Handbook for Mortals.  None.  It was listed as “Out of Stock” on Amazon, and no Barnes & Noble seemed to carry any physical copies. No one from the YA Twitter community came forward with a copy. And yet the book was already a bestseller, with the author herself planning on starring as the lead character in a movie version of the novel! How exactly does that happen?

Turns out, the author and her publisher were placing bulk orders for “events” like conventions or author signings at various booksellers across the country. When ranking its bestseller lists, the NYT relies not on the actual number of books sold, but number of reported orders and sales from booksellers. So they see that this one book in the YA category is getting a ton of orders in bulk, and without any indicators to present something fishy, there’s a new entry on the bestseller list.

That’s actually kind of clever. Horrible, as all cons are, but still kind of clever. Now if there were actual copies of the novel, it might have worked.

It only got crazier from there. Remember when I said Sarem was a band manager? Well, one of her former bands was Blues Traveler, and they admitted through Twitter that Sarem had done similar stuff when she was their manager, and they fired her for it (they later took down that tweet, but it’s already out there, so…). So we’ve got an author and her publisher, one of whom has done bulk orders to boost visibility of a product/group, using bulk orders to send a book up the NYT Bestseller list.

Well, Twitter’s YA community wasn’t happy about it. Stamper and West started encouraging bookstore employees through DMs to come forward about this. As it became more apparent that there was something fishy going on, the NYT finally took notice and saw what the YA Twitter community had uncovered. They later released an updated list, with The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas back on top, and Handbook for Mortals nowhere in sight.

It later came out that Sarem’s whole goal was to star in the movie version, but she needed buzz, so she got the book onto the bestseller list. If she could get it on the list, she’d be able to get funding for a movie. God, that’s horrible.

So what can we take from this story? Obviously, if you notice something suspicious, you’re perfectly capable of doing Spotlight-style sleuthing and discover  conspiracy. But it just goes to show what happens when you try to skimp on hard work and still make it to the top.

There’s no substitute for hard work. And the majority of authors, no matter if it’s their first or sixtieth book, work as hard as possible. We write, edit, edit several more times, try to get good covers, and do our best at marketing our stories. This applies whether you’re a traditionally or independently published author. Sometimes we’re successful, sometimes we don’t. Still, we try our hardest. But when someone tries to game the system and build hype by being fake, there’s always going to be people who notice.

And sometimes, when they notice, they can bring down an entire scam and keep someone unworthy from getting a literary and acting career.

Networking Scams

Watch out for networking scams! As an author you want to promote your book through a variety of venues, including book signings, personal sales, an online presence or through networking.

These are good pursuits. The more you get yourself out there the better your chances of broadening your exposure. However, you also are subject to scams.

Recently, I received a letter saying, someone nominated me to become a member of a women’s professional networking organization. On the postcard, they listed their Web site for me to visit. I did that. It looked legit.

Since I am a member of the local chamber of commerce and they referred me to a reporter for an interview a month ago, I believed they could have passed on my name on this. I filled out the card, omitting my e-mail address. The card required my address, telephone number and perhaps my Web site but no other personal information. Thus I sent it in without worrying about relaying private information. If it did, I would not have completed it.

A couple of weeks rolled by and I never thought more about it until last week when I received a call from them. They asked me about the other professional organizations I belonged to and more about my business. I gave them the information and my e-mail address since they said the membership was selective on whom they would grant membership. I promoted myself, saying I was a member of such and such and my book, Seasons of the Soul, received Best of Year from www.Christianstoryteller.com and my short story, “The Silver Lining” (which is free to read on Smashwords) came in 10th on the 79th Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the mainstream/literary short story category.

The caller stated they would love to focus me in their newsletter. I was thrilled at the extra exposure but then the woman hit with their membership dues – a stunning more than $600 for one type or $400 and something for their networking membership. “We need to place this on your credit card,” knowing earlier I selected the networking one.

Stunned, I composed myself. “That’s too much.”

“Well,” she continued, We have a $289 membership which would allow you such and such.

I replied, “I would have to ask my husband and would rather send a check. Could you send me the information?” I knew I would never submit the check.

“No, we need to confirm this through credit card. We have another membership for $189 which …”

“Again,” I reiterated, “I would have to ask my husband.”

Exasperated, she offered me their free newsletter. “Let me connect you with processing.”

I heard the click and stayed on the line. When after several seconds no one connected with me, I hung up the phone.

What a scam. Thank God I had the good sense to not give them my credit card number but how many others were vulnerable to this technique? I do not want to give the women’s organization’s name but it is located in Garden City, New York. Watch for them or other groups portraying themselves as one thing but really a front to reach into your pocket.