Until Big Publishing becomes a meritocracy and publishes ONLY talent, I'm not too perturbed by an author buying 400 copies of his own book and hitting the charts. Naughty, yes, but not as naughty as Big Publishing. For a start, he talked about it.

Big publishers rarely talk about their methods. Big marketing spend = big sales (very often). Waterstones chart shelves are a complete fiction (get it?) and are paid-for positions (via very heavy discounts). Ditto tables. Publishers often pre-ordain best sellers.

Richard and Judy too is not a meritocracy. It costs a bomb to have a book on that promotion (which is all it is). Not to disparage any authors in this, who wouldn't want to be on R&J? But it is misleading. (I can't get my authors' books on R&J due to the expense.)

Not really complaining about all this. It's the landscape. But I'm also not going to throw up my hands in horror over an author playing this crazy system. Big publishers are the big players... so all is fair in love and books... maybe...