[CobrastanJorji]

You left out my favorite trick: politics! For example, say that you're running for President, and you want your campaign book to be a "top 10 list" best seller. Well, just have your campaign pre-order 4,000 or so copies of the book. That plus 1000 or so real sales will be enough to get you into the top 10 list, and at only about $55,000, it's practically a steal. Even better, the proceeds come right back to you because you're sure as heck not gonna give your campaign a discount.

[m463]

Scientology did one better - they bought their own books at retail, then fed them back into the distribution chain. It was common for "new" books to arrive with price tags still on them.