How Tech Firms Made a Crypto-Boosting Book an NYT Best Seller by Gaming the System

For any author, getting a spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list is a coveted accolade. The list, despite its name, is not in fact a list of the best-selling books, but the result of a proprietary system in which the number of copies a book actually sells in a given week is just one among a number of unknown factors. Just as search results can be gamed by reverse-engineering their algorithms, there are, as many writers have long known, ways to secure a spot on the list besides being popular with the general public. One of them is placing bulk orders with book sellers. 

So it was that Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet, a new book by venture capitalist Chrix Dixon extolling the virtues of blockchain technology, came in at number 9 on the Times’ latest Best Sellers list for non-fiction books. Read Write Own is sandwiched between Masters of the Air—the basis for a new star-studded miniseries from Apple—and Britney Spears’ new memoir, The Woman In Me. Dixon’s book stands out not just because he’s a relative unknown outside of tech circles, but because the book’s entry on the list includes a small dagger icon. 

That dagger icon indicates, as the Times helpfully explains, that bulk purchases were included in the count that put the book on the list, which is based on sales for the week ending February 3. “Institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases, if and when they are included, are at the discretion of The New York Times Best-Seller List Desk editors based on standards for inclusion that encompass proprietary vetting and audit protocols, corroborative reporting and other statistical determinations. When included, such bulk purchases appear with a dagger (†),” a post explaining the list’s methodology states.  

Bulk orders are a time-worn path to juicing sales and becoming a bestseller, despite the Times being concerned enough about this form of system-gaming to have special typographical tools meant to combat it. The most basic version of the scheme is a publisher—or another group, typically associated with the author in some way—placing huge orders for the book with sellers that report their sales to the Times.

For example, the Republican National Committee spent nearly $100,000 buying copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s 2019 book Triggered before it went on sale, giving it a spot on the Best Sellers list that was appended with a dagger icon. (This is, to be clear, not a partisan issue; politicians of all ideologies who have had unreadable books ghostwritten for them have arranged for fake purchases of the books for publicity reasons.) While everything to do with the list is opaque, the Times is known to outright disqualify books for the list based on bulk orders.

So, who could have placed the bulk orders that put Dixon’s book on the list? According to a16z, the technology-focused venture capital firm where Dixon is a general partner leading the way on its cryptocurrency investments, it was companies linked to Dixon and a16z. 

“The New York Times has strict guidelines regarding bulk buys counting towards their best seller list—they’ve never hesitated from disqualifying a book that violates those guidelines,” a16z spokesperson Paul Cafiero said in an emailed statement. “We see this as a sign that the book is resonating with a variety of communities.”

Cafiero linked two examples of firms that publicly said they placed orders for Dixon’s book to give to employees. One was Syndicate, a company in the crypto industry that a16z has invested in. “We bought copies for all of our team members at @syndicateio,” Syndicate cofounder Ian Lee posted on X. “I’m so [excited] for others to enjoy it as much as I have.” According to LinkedIn, Syndicate has between 11 and 50 employees. Another firm that placed a much larger order for Dixon’s book—1,401 copies—was Electric Capital, a crypto-focused investment firm that has participated in funding rounds with a16z. Dixon, in his capacity as an individual, backed a $30 million NFT fund along with Electric Capital founder Avichal Garg. 

“Want a free copy of @cdixon's new book "Read Write Own"? [cofounder] @jubos, @ElectricCapital, and I are giving away 1401 books,” Garg wrote in a post on X on Februry 1. “Chris has done a lot for @ElectricCapital and the entire crypto ecosystem over the last decade,” he continued. “The previous highest bulk purchase at the distributor was 1400. Our small way of saying thank you was to buy more books than anyone else (so far).”

1,401 copies is a lot of books. A 2018 study that analyzed books on the Times’ Best Sellers list from 2008 onwards found that nonfiction books sold around 2,000 copies on the low end.

Cafiero also confirmed that a16z placed orders for Dixon’s book to be distributed to employees. He claimed the company’s understanding is that these orders are not counted by the Times, and did not elaborate on how many copies a16z bought or when the order was placed.

“Yep we bought copies for employees, which is very common,” Cafiero said. “Defer to the Times but I don’t believe those are counted towards the best seller list. At least that’s our understanding.”

Times spokesperson Melissa Torres said in a statement to Motherboard that the paper reserves the right to include bulk orders in its count at its discretion, and directed us to its methodology page.

“For the Best Seller List, sales are defined as completed transactions by vendors and individual end users during the period on or after the official publication date of a title,” Torres said. “Institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases, if and when they are included, are at the discretion of our editors based on standards for inclusion that encompass proprietary vetting and audit protocols, corroborative reporting and other statistical determinations.”

Random House, the book’s publisher, did not respond to a request for comment.