Valerie Jarrett, a former top adviser to President Obama, has recently published a New York Times best-selling book titled “Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward”. However, while Jarrett’s book does sit at number 14 on the New York Times’s lauded best-seller list, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Jarrett and her book did not earn their way there fairly.
At the time of this writing, Jarrett’s book was ranked as the 1030th best-selling book on Amazon and was rated only 2 stars. On Barnes and Noble’s website, the book hasn’t fared much better, ranking as the 1244th best-selling book on the site. These are dismal ratings for someone of Valerie Jarrett’s public stature. And yet, somehow, a book that hasn’t managed to stay in the top 1000 best-selling books on two of the largest book-selling platforms in the world now ranks as a New York Times best-seller.
These anomalies have many in the writing and publishing industry questioning whether or not Jarrett cheated her way onto the New York Times best-seller list. One prominent book industry insider who wished to remain anonymous claimed that the evidence Jarrett is cheating the system is overwhelming, saying, “Given the organic sales of that book and the fact that during the entire week of rollout it barely cracked the top 100 on Amazon, there’s no way the book should have a place on the NYT Best Seller list. Inconceivable. There’s likely an effort to game the system, it’s the only explanation.”
It turns out that gaming the system isn’t all that difficult. All you need to appear on the New York Times best-seller list is plenty of sales – and it doesn’t necessarily matter where those sales come from. There are companies in existence that offer to purchases thousands of copies of an author’s book in order to drive it to the top of best-seller lists such as the New York Times best-seller list.
Given the fact that Valerie Jarrett reportedly received a one million dollar advance on royalties for her book, she would have had plenty of money to pay companies such as this to purchase her book and drive it to the top of the rankings.
While this strategy is as expensive as it is dishonest, the profits outweigh the costs in the end. Simply appearing on a respected list such as the New York Times best-seller list yields an author far more money than any amount of money they would have to spend to cheat their way onto that list.
Of course, most authors have neither the money nor the connections to pull this off. Valerie Jarrett, however, has both.
According to the number of sales that Jarrett’s book has reportedly received, the book should actually rank much higher on the New York Times best-seller list than it currently does. However, the New York Times rejected many of Jarrett’s sales on the grounds that they were suspicious. In other words, even the New York Times was suspicious about the sales that Jarrett reported, though not suspicious enough given the book’s awful ranking on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Other prominent best-seller lists like the one by Publishers Weekly interestingly chose to exclude Jarrett’s book entirely even though it should have made these lists if her sales figures are honest and accurate.
While the jury may still be out on whether or not Jarrett cheated her way to the top of the New York Times best-seller list, these other respected publishers apparently have good reason to suspect she is guilty of manipulating the numbers.
If Jarrett did cheat her way onto this respected list, she wouldn’t be the first author to attempt to do so. However, Jarrett’s former position as a trusted advisor to the President of the United States makes her dishonest, self-serving actions all the more alarming.
Valerie Jarrett is a woman that is used to cheating, lying, and scamming her way to success. What worked for her in politics now seems to be working for her in the book publishing industry as well.
