In September 2020, United States Senator Ted Cruz published a book titled One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History.
A year later, people are still talking about his book, although not for the reasons the author would hope.
The conversation surrounding Cruz’s book is not about its content, its author, its topic, or the context in which the book was released.
The talk these days is about the tactics used by Cruz and his campaign committee to purchase his books.
Two ethics watchdogs, the Campaign Legal Centre, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission over the way in which Cruz used campaign funds to make bulk purchases of his books.
The legality of his behaviour is in question.
Others point out that even if his behaviour is found to be legal, is it ethical to inflate the sales of your book with bulk book purchases?
The distinction between ethics and legality is an important question for all authors to consider.
As an author, how important is the ethics of book sales and financing?
How does the average author feel knowing that some authors have large organizations purchasing their books, inflating their sales, and knocking others off the New York Times or Amazon bestseller list?
Let’s examine the ethics of this book sales strategy used several times by the Republican party.
Why Isn’t Everyone Following the Republican National Committee?
There are several examples of the Republican National Committee (RNC) bulk buying books, both those of Republican politicians and non-politicians.
As Paul Farhi writes for the Washington Post, “While at least seven Democratic senators published books during the past election cycle, neither the Democratic National Committee nor the party’s two congressional arms reported buying any of them in bulk quantities”.
During that same period, the RNC and other affiliated groups spent over $1 million dollars bulk buying books on behalf of at least six authors connected with the Republican party.
Bulk book buying appears to be a tactic employed exclusively by the RNC in the political realm.
If bulk book purchases were a legitimate and common tactic to support sales, why have other groups, political or connected to other interests, not engaged in the same behaviour?
Their reluctance to engage in an effective strategy leaves the reader to question the ethics bulk book buying.
Why wouldn’t everyone follow the RNC if this was an ethical path?
Illegal or Unethical? Or Both?
In April 2021, Senator Ted Cruz was accused of illegally profiting off of his books. His campaign used donated funds to purchase approximately $200,000 in books.
The books were then re-sold to those who donated $77 to his campaign. While it is not illegal to use campaign funds to purchase books, it is illegal to profit off of those sales.
For this reason, campaigns typically purchase books for use in the campaign directly from the publisher, so they can automatically tally and retain the royalties from those purchases on behalf of the author.
The difference in the Ted Cruz case is that the campaign did not purchase the books through the publisher, but through retail booksellers, making it next to impossible to track royalties, and obscuring if Cruz was able to personally profit from those sales.
The strategy of bulk book buying may not be illegal, but profiting off of the strategy is.
There is no way to ensure that Cruz will not profit off of the books purchased by his campaign.
What does it Mean to be a ‘Bestseller’ When You Can Buy Your Way to the Top?
One of the main ways an author can demonstrate their success and popularity is by reaching the top of bestseller lists.
Having your book on the New York Times bestseller list has always been a standard way to show your book is a success.
But what does that success mean today, knowing you can bulk buy thousands of copies of your book, and reach the top of the bestseller lists artificially?
Do you want to be an author who reached the top because you had the most money backing you?
How would you feel being knocked off the bestseller list, because a large organization can afford to buy 200,000 copies of your rival’s book?
What is the meaning or value behind being on the bestseller list today, if you can simply buy your way on?
This question has unsettled the New York Times bestseller list itself.
In November 2019, Donald Trump Jr.’s book, Triggered, made it to the number one spot on the NYT list. Accompanying his listing was a little dagger symbol.
NYT used this symbol to indicate that the book reached the top of the best-seller list in part due to bulk purchases of the book.
As Trump Jr.’s book was the only one on the list to feature this symbol, the use of the dagger symbol led to an attack on the New York Times, with Republican supporters saying the paper was discriminating against Republicans.
What Does This Mean for Authors?
Knowing that certain authors may be using bulk purchasing of their books to inflate sales figures, is there anything the average author can do to promote their sales without resorting to these tactics?
Each year, the New York Times publishes its criteria for including books on the Best Seller List.
They specifically address the issue of bulk sales in one section:
Sales are defined as completed transactions by vendors and individual end-users during the period on or after the official publication date of a title.
Institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases, if and when they are included, are at the discretion of The New York Times Best-Seller List Desk editors based on standards for inclusion that encompass proprietary vetting and audit protocols, corroborative reporting and other statistical determinations.
When included, such bulk purchases appear with a dagger (†).
Publishers and vendors of all ranked titles must conform in a timely fashion to The New York Times Best-Seller Lists requirement to allow for examination and independent corroboration of their reported sales for that week.
Sales are statistically weighted to represent and accurately reflect all outlets proportionally nationwide.
An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales are barely distinguishable from those of the book above.
The lesson is clear – if you are going to use questionable tactics to inflate your book’s sales, it will be noted and called out, at least by the New York Times.
While some readers may be influenced by practices such as bulk book buying, the majority of readers will remain skeptical to any book that triggers a debate not with its content, but with the questionable behaviour of its author.
Cited and Relevant Articles
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/gop-book-deals/2021/04/15/154f3820-9ca5-11eb-b7a8-014b14aeb9e4_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/books/donald-trump-jr-triggered-sales.html
Joel Mark Harris graduated from the Langara School of Journalism in 2007. Joel is an award-winning journalist, novelist, screenwriter and producer.
He has ghostwritten numerous books in all types of genres including true life crime, business, memoir, and self help. With over 1,000 blog posts to his name, he has helped hundreds of business owners scale their business and increase their visibility. You can email him at info@ghostwritersandco.com
