[slyall]

Pretty common for authors to get people to pre-order their books so when they go on sale they top the chart for that day (the book's release day) in their category.

[jabroni_salad]

Not even just for their category. "NYT bestsellers" has been manipulated like this since inception.

[bobthepanda]

NYT bestsellers is also not a sales volume chart, there is an editorial lens to it as well