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I always assumed that the NYT Bestseller List was a marketing vehicle that you could buy into. Not that it didn't track legitimate "bestsellers." I just figured you could pay to play too. If people really care about knowing that for sure then I guess it's nice to see some actual proof of it.

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Methodology: https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/methodology/

Thanks! I probably should have looked for this myself...

It wouldn't be much use if it was widely-known to be easily gamed. Even as a revenue vehicle, the NYT would do better (at least in the past decade) to make these books pay for ads the old-fashioned way.

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