“Bought 1,600 Copies of Own Book to Climb Bestseller List”…Famous Essayist Caught Manipulating Rankings

14% of Total Sales Illegitimately Acquired
Writer Supplied Funds, Publisher CEO Orchestrated Bulk-Buying

A renowned essayist and a publishing company CEO have been brought to trial for buying over 1,600 copies of the writer's own book at their own expense in an attempt to boost its bestseller ranking.

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On September 9, the Goyang branch of the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office announced that it had indicted Writer A, in their 40s, and CEO B, in their 50s, without detention, on charges of violating the Publishing Industry Promotion Act.

Between March and July 2024, the two conspired to artificially increase sales of A's new book in order to place and maintain it in the bestseller rankings at C Bookstore. During this period, they improperly purchased a total of 1,631 copies.

Investigations revealed that when Writer A handed money to CEO B, B would travel to various C Bookstore outlets around the country and repeatedly purchase the book directly.

In the process, they devised meticulous concealment methods to avoid detection of the bulk-buying, such as targeting shifts in store staff before making additional purchases, or intentionally damaging packaging to disguise the purchase as that of a defective copy. They also shared these tactics with each other.

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In particular, in order to circumvent C Bookstore’s rule that counts multiple purchases by members on the same day as a single sale, they continued to make in-store purchases as non-members.

As a result of this bulk-buying scheme, 14% of the book's total sales of 11,135 copies were illegitimately accounted for. Consequently, the book’s weekly bestseller ranking by category jumped from 3rd or 4th place up to 2nd or 3rd place.

This scheme came to light when the publishing company CEO, who had conspired in the bulk purchase, voluntarily reported the matter to the Publication Distribution Review Committee.

The prosecution stated, "The two seem to have believed that the promotional effect from a higher bestseller ranking would outweigh advertising expenses, which led them to commit the crime." The prosecution also pointed out the structural problems in the publishing distribution industry that make such abuse possible.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.