For the bestseller rankings
It is reported that a writer and a publishing company CEO have been indicted for
buying up copies of a book they published themselves in order to push it onto the bestseller list.
First, let’s take a look at the article.
Article referenced
“For the bestseller rankings”… Writer and publishing company CEO bought up 1,631 copies of a book
Based on an article by Kim Eun-jin of Chosun Ilbo.
The Goyang Branch of the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors’ Office announced on the 9th that it had indicted, without detention, a 49-year-old essay writer, A, and a 56-year-old publishing company CEO, B, on charges of violating the Publishing Industry Promotion Act.
A and B are accused of visiting bookstores across the country and buying up 1,631 copies of A’s book.
!!!!!
If we assume each book cost 10,000 won,
that’s 16.31 million won.
Investigators found that from March to July 2024, they committed this act in order to increase sales of A’s newly published book and get it onto and keep it on a bookstore’s bestseller list.
The Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency reported the matter to the police,
and the prosecution’s supplementary investigation revealed the details of the scheme.
A and B apparently believed that getting the book onto the bestseller list through bulk purchases would have a greater advertising effect than spending money on advertising.
Ah.
So that was the goal.
During the period of the scheme, the books they bought up accounted for
**14%** of the total 11,135 copies sold.
As a result of their actions, the book’s bestseller ranking was found to have risen
from around 3rd–4th place to 2nd–3rd place.
Now it makes sense.
Pay 20 million won to lobby someone and say,
“Put me in 2nd or 3rd place.”
Obviously, that wouldn’t be easy.
I don’t know which bookstore it was,
but if it was a bookstore important enough for them to go to such lengths to raise their ranking,
it probably wasn’t just some small neighborhood bookstore.
If such a bookstore was doing business normally,
there would be little reason for it to risk the survival of its own business over a few tens of millions of won just to manipulate a ranking.
So it appears that they simply bought the books themselves and artificially created sales.
But then another strange part appears.
A and B reportedly became acquainted while publishing another book in the past,
and B’s publishing company was reportedly unrelated to the book that was the subject of the bulk purchases.
Huh??
What does that mean??
So, the author of the book that was bought up this time really was A,
but the book was not published by B’s publishing company.
If B is the CEO of a publishing company,
you would naturally assume that B was the CEO of the company that published the book…
But apparently, that wasn’t the case either.
Then why did B participate in buying 1,631 copies of A’s book?
Were they simply acquaintances,
or perhaps they were romantically involved..
We cannot know this from the article alone.
From this point on, we need to see more of the investigation results.
A prosecution official said:
“They took advantage of the fact that there was no system in place to check for bulk purchasing during the bestseller selection process,”
and added, “We will respond strictly to unfair practices such as bulk purchasing.”
This part is important.
If that’s the case, it may also be worth looking into
which books have previously made it onto bestseller lists
through similar methods.
Now then,
if these people are ultimately punished,
let’s take a look at what crimes could potentially be at issue.
First, there is the charge they were actually indicted on:
Violation of the Publishing Industry Promotion Act
Because there is a law regulating attempts to artificially increase book sales and push a book onto the bestseller list,
this is the charge that was applied in this case.
So there was already a law that fit this situation perfectly?
Impressive.
But does it end there?
Interference with Business
I think interference with business could also be considered.
A and B artificially created sales,
and as a result, the bestseller ranking itself actually changed.
That ranking could, in turn, affect consumers’ purchasing decisions as well as the bookstore’s sales operations.
Fraud
I’ve discussed fraud once before.
I believe I compared the United Kingdom and Germany.
The key point of fraud as I previously explained it was
that you have to deceive someone, and that deception must cause financial harm to the other person.
So what about this case?
There is certainly an element where they artificially created sales
to make it appear that more books had been sold than actually were.
They intentionally tried to deceive people.
And as a result, the bestseller ranking actually increased.
That’s where the deception comes in. The ranking went up.
Then suppose a consumer sees that ranking and thinks:
“Oh… Is this a good book?”
and buys the book,
and it can even be proven that the purchase was causally connected to the artificially created sales figures or the resulting increase in the ranking,
then you could at least consider whether fraud charges could also become an issue.
Of course, this would be separate from the actual charges filed,
and specific evidence of harm to the buyers would still be necessary.
As expected, crimes committed by educated people operate on a different scale.
One guy takes a dump in front of someone else’s boiler room on December 31
and gets hit with a 3 million won fine,
while here it’s:
“I’ll buy my own books and raise my own ranking.”
And then they were trying to use that ranking
to generate even more sales.
One thing is certain.
From now on, I don’t think
Author A will ever be able to
hit the “Like” button on their own posts without thinking twice.