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Snapshot: https://t.co/i1inlq5r2w

Interesting article that describes in numerous examples how strategic bulk purchases of books are used to artificially boost their ranking.

Books that both quickly appear on and vanish from the list are practically guaranteed to have doctored sales.

For example an author might give speeches before the publication date and stipulate that his fee is to be paid in book purchases. When the big day comes all those pre-sales count and the book is an immediate hit.

I’m not that interested in the New York Times best seller list itself but it was exciting to find out what happens behind the scenes.

Anybody have similar articles for the App Store ranking lists?



This is especially noticeable with autobiographies of celebrities.

10s of thousands of 5 star reviews, but the majority of the text feedback from actual users calling it garbage.




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