We IMers learned all about this practice years ago. 

Courtesy of NYT:

Boxes began arriving in early November at the Phoenix headquarters of Turning Point USA, a conservative student group with ties to the Trump family.

They contained copies of the new book by Donald Trump Jr., “Triggered,” according to a person who works in the building. The stockpile grew to roughly 2,000 copies, stored in an underused second-floor office under a poster bearing a slogan: “Capitalism Not Cronyism.”

Turning Point is not the only conservative group making bulk purchases to aid Mr. Trump’s new career as an author. At least nine Republican organizations, G.O.P. candidates or advocacy groups are selling “Triggered” or promoting Mr. Trump’s book tour, according to emails obtained by The New York Times, interviews and disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.

……….

Some groups are harnessing the younger Mr. Trump’s popularity to raise political donations while also driving his sales. The N.R.C.C. bought $75,000 worth of books in November, a spokesman said, in a promotion that took in almost $200,000 in contributions. The National Republican Senatorial Committee ordered about 2,500 copies, which it said sold almost immediately.

The Republican National Committee and Citizens United, a conservative activist group run by a former deputy campaign manager to the president, are also offering the book to donors.

Earlier this month, the R.N.C. denied making large bulk purchases of the book, a practice that some best-seller lists, including that of The Times, may penalize authors for when ranking sales. But F.E.C. records released last week showed that it spent almost $100,000 on copies on Oct. 29, a transaction the committee acknowledged was part of its “Triggered” promotion.

I think most of us here became aware of this practice when it was used to push Sarah Palin’s stupid book to the top of the best seller’s list.

However this same tactic has been used to make Bill O’Reilly’s books, Glenn Beck’s books, and Jeanine Pirro’s books, seem super popular. 

These people do not know how to be successful without cheating. 

Someday I would love to see some big journalistic outift, like the New York Times, really dig down to find out just how many sales are to individuals and how many are bullshit bulk purchases by Right Wing groups. 

I think that would be very enlightening. 

By the way I should mention that Junior’s book was knocked out of the number one spot on the Times best seller’s list by “A Warning” the book written by an anonymous White House staffer who says that Donald Trump is unfit for office. 

Somehow I doubt that book relied on bulk sales to reach its position.