“No evidence of bulk orders or sales through any retailer or organization,” says the publisher, in a rare rebuttal to the all-powerful Times.
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Publishing giant HarperCollins is publicly pushing back against the New York Times' claim that Ted Cruz's new book, A Time For Truth, was disqualified from its bestseller list because sales were limited to "strategic bulk purchases."
In a statement provided to BuzzFeed News, HarperCollins publicity director Tina Andreadis said the company looked into the matter and "found no evidence of bulk orders or sales through any retailer or organization."
It is common practice for politicians to try to game the Times' prestigious bestseller list by having their campaigns or political action committees buy up thousands of copies of their books. When Cruz's book was left off the list this week despite outselling many of the entries that did make it, the paper's spokesperson justified the omission by telling Politico they found an "overwhelming preponderance of evidence" that the sales numbers were being padded by bulk purchases.
By publicly refuting the Times' claim , HarperCollins is taking on one of the most influential forces in the publishing industry — an exceedingly rare move for any large publisher.
Here is Andreadis' complete statement:
HarperCollins Publishers has investigated the sales pattern for Ted Cruz's book A TIME FOR TRUTH and has found no evidence of bulk orders or sales through any retailer or organization.
When questioned about the omission of A TIME FOR TRUTH from its bestseller list, the New York Times told Politico, "In the case of this book, the overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases."
A TIME FOR TRUTH ranked high on other publishing industry bestseller lists including Nielsen Bookscan (#4), a subscription service that tracks the vast majority of book sales in America, The Wall Street Journal (#4) and Barnes and Noble (#7). All these outlets omit bulk orders books from their rankings.
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HarperCollins Refutes New York Times Claim That Ted Cruz Tried To Game Bestseller List