If you go to the New York Times "Best Sellers" list you will find many books by famous people that you wouldn't guess that they could write a lick.
Politicians, evangelist, talk TV/radio heads, all have books on the best sellers list.
Heres why.
The best sellers list is based on "sales" of a particular publication, NOT individual sales but total sales. So when you see a book by Anne Coulter on the list you have to understand that the book is published by a NewsCorp. company. Then a different NewsCorp company automatically buys a million copies. This puts that book on the list.
It is a scam and everybody does it. This means that individuals that write a book, get it published, only get credit for books sold one by one to individuals.
People like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, Joel Olsteen, Anne Coulter, aren't really producing a "Best Seller". Not like Maya Angelou. One of the worst users of this scam technique has been James Petterson. Sure Patterson writes great stories but to boost his fame and thereby boosting his sales he utilized this scam. It worked. He is now one of the most read authors around.
Rowling never had to resort to such a scam. She wrote Harry Potter and it was wildly popular before any of the Disney movies.
So next time you see that a book has made the "Best Sellers" list, you'll know that it probably ISN'T a "Best Seller"!
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I didn't know any of this, mykcob. I feel very naive, but I'm very happy that -at least- the 'best seller' label does not reflect that those calamaties are sold THAT well... Thank you very much for sharing!
Thanks for that!
Now that you know how "Best Sellers" that don't deserve to be on the list make it, guess how "the bible" REALLY sells so many copies.
Throughout the world, there are large corporations. Some are single entities and many are HUGE growing concerns (businesses). We call these businesses church and religion. The businesses don't have to produce a product, they don't have to pay taxes, so they are unbound and one sided. Now the christian version has been very successful at fooling the consumer. They have even produced an "owners manual" to help sell this non-product. It's a book that they call the bible. For years christians have claimed that this is the most popular book ever written and is always NO. 1 on the "Best Sellers" list.
What they don't tell you is that these churches and religions actually BUY most of the copies. They don't tell you that if you actually took into account how many INDIVIDUALS bought a copy the actual number would cause most publishers to stop printing this book.
Actually, Kenneth Hagin ( a TV evangelist) gives millions of these bibles to inmates.
The truth is that the Koran out sales the bible currently and has for over a decade. (incidentally, the koran uses the same scam to make the best seller list).
The fact is that there are "baptist book stores" and other religious retail stores. That buy millions of bible and religious books then resale them in their stores. It's like laundering money. Actually, it IS laundering money, but we are talking about how books make the best seller list that really are not best sellers.
I wonder if Bible sales figures include all the copies given away by the Gideons in hotel rooms worldwide. They claim to have handed out over 2 billion copies, but how many are actually read is an entirely different question.
A chain of Christian book stores went out of business this year.
"All 240 Family Christian Stores Are Closing
More than 3,000 employees in 36 states will be laid off in the liquidation of one of the world’s largest Christian retailers.
SARAH EEKHOFF ZYLSTRA FEBRUARY 23, 2017 2:13 PM"
http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/february/all-family-christian...
"More than two years ago, suppliers forgave Family Christian Stores $127 million in debt so that it could remain open. Today, the chain—which bills itself as “the world’s largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise”—announced it is closing all of its stores after 85 years in business.
Family Christian, which employed more than 3,000 people in more than 240 stores across 36 states, blamed “changing consumer behavior and declining sales.”"