How to Know If Your Book Is a Verified Bestseller

Social media is toxic.

Not just because of what these algorithms do to us.

But because of who we become when we use it for too long.

Some of us get so good at marketing and branding we don’t realize we’ve become liars.

Sometimes I’m consuming content—a podcast, a YouTube video, an article on LinkedIn—and they get me. Their sales pitch wins. I’m convinced and I go to Amazon to buy this expert’s best-selling book. But as soon as I get there, it’s obvious the book isn’t a best-seller. Despite being published years before books I’ve published, despite that the expert has way more social media followers than authors I’ve worked with, the expert’s book somehow managed to sell less copies, and garner less reviews, than books I’ve published for my clients. The expert is lying and I can tell.

So many authors, publishers, publishing consultants, coaches, thought leaders, and “influencers” lie about having a best-selling book.

And for good reason.

The benefits of having written a best-seller are legion.

Recognition and social proofing—people know you and know that you are capable of producing content people will voluntarily connect with. Content that touches people.

Long-term career impact—not much needs to be said about this. Just one best-selling book is rocket fuel for a writer’s career. A best-selling book incepts demand into the minds of fans, movie producers, directors, actors, voice-over artists, and other creatives. A best-seller can lead to fame, and fame is a pretty good success lever.

Increased income potential—once you’ve demonstrated that you can do it, the assumption is that you can do it again. Investors will throw resources your way to find out. The thinking is, if the writer can produce this quality while struggling, how much better is the content likely to be when money is used to eliminate stress and distraction?

Social media, like money, amplifies. And just like money, social media amplifies both experts and frauds indiscriminately. Since social media doesn’t come with quality assurance built in, it can be difficult to sift the rare truth from the dross. It’s easy to get caught up in “Dr.” Berg’s bullshit, when you’d be much better off with actual doctor, Dr. Mike. If you’re trying to lose weight it’s much easier to get caught up in Simeon Panda’s or Logan Paul’s bullshit, when you’d be better off with Dr. Mike Israetel, Jeff Nippard, or Stephanie Buttermore.

I suspect, but can’t say for sure, that one of the reasons A.I. “hallucinates” is because it’s trained on massive quantities of internet data and, for better or worse, people pretend on the internet. They lie. They exaggerate their achievements, they curate their lives, they fake it till they make it, they confabulate. AI is no more than us, reflected, more efficient, and amplified by a machine’s relentless advantages.

But there are other paths.

The single greatest success characteristic is the ability to delay gratification. To act without seeing the result of your actions over an extended time horizon. —Alex Hormozi

Success leaves marks is another truism bandied about the internet. The proof is in the pudding. As hokey as it sounds, this one is more reliable than “fake it ‘til you make it.”

If you claim to be something you’re not, you’re an imposter—a liar. It doesn’t matter how much social media appears to condone, or justify, or normalize, this behavior.

A person lying, or confabulating, or faking it until they make it, is deliberately traumatizing themselves and everyone else.

You’re doing both yourself, and your audience a disservice by pretending to be something you’re not.

You’re robbing the person who looks up to you, who trusts you, of the actual methodology they need to live a successful life.

And you rob yourself of pleasure, of the unmitigated joy you experience when you actually do a difficult thing or help someone else accomplish a difficult thing. So many people complain that their lives feel hollow even when it appears to everybody else that they really don’t have anything to complain about. I am not a psychologist, but having spoken to many humans I’ve deduced that this is because they didn’t earn what they’re celebrated for. It’s hard to be proud of something you stole. They lied, and everybody believed the lie and then the world rewarded them for the lie. With no achievements, no foundation, why wouldn’t they feel hollow? Deep down they know that if anyone digs deep enough there’s no bedrock, no anchor—there’s nothing there. The soulless man is always empty.

I live in the data and have for years. I can tell when book-related people are faking. And since I can tell, I can show you how to tell too.

If you have an actual best-selling book, you will regularly receive the email I’ve screenshot above from Amazon.

Amazon is ruthless about sales. Being ruthless about selling—being relentless about ensuring that the machine gets goods into the hands of people willing to hand over cold, filthy lucre in exchange—is how the world’s biggest book nerd became the world’s wealthiest person.

Say whatever else you want about Amazon, but Amazon’s algorithm is ruthless about identifying winners, and then marketing them relentlessly.

If you want actual proof that someone is a best-selling author ask them to show you the email I’ve posted above. Ignore the influencers and thought leaders who go out of their way to find attractive “best-selling” badges to put on their book covers. Ignore the coaches and entrepreneurs who Photoshop fake best-seller tags onto a screenshot of their book’s detail page and then use that in marketing materials.

Ask the author to show you where Amazon asked them for permission to place their book in a Kindle Deal. If a person actually has a best-selling book on Amazon they won’t have any trouble sharing that with you. Amazon sends this email to best-selling authors over, and over, and over. It’s sent this email to one of my clients seven times over the past three years.

Like I said. The algorithm is ruthless, and relentless, about identifying winners. About identifying items that sell well, and then promoting them to people who will hand over cold, hard, cash in exchange.

I would know. I enjoy making best-selling books. And I got so good at doing it, that I make best-selling books for a living. I got so good at doing it, I can teach you how to make your next book a best-seller. All you have to do is ask. I even have the requisite “free eBook” on the topic, I'd be happy to share.