When I meet an author who claims to have written a best seller book, I expect they’ve sold 10,000 copies of their book. That is the English Trade Publishing definition of a bestselling book in India. It is driven by the thought that books around interesting themes that are well written become popular and are therefore widely read. Ergo, they sell a lot. 

That is different from an Amazon best seller book. When you browse books on Amazon.in, you’ve seen that glorious orange sash screaming  “#1” or “Bestseller”. And you’ve met the author who doesn’t make eye-contact when they claim to have two bestselling books and given three TEDx talks (explained below).

If you click the “look inside” option of such books, chances are you’ll find insipid writing which is badly edited, if at all. Often such books are self-indulgent, and serve purposes other than engaging a reader. The book may have been written to inflate an author’s ego, earn them a speaking gig, make a consulting business more credible, or make a resume sexy – all terrible reasons to write a book.

Back to our self-professed bestselling author – you assume they must be a literary genius with great ideas. They probably got mobbed at their book launch. That they must be a household name. You wonder why you’ve never heard of them, or their books.  

Well, Amazon Best seller book aren’t real bestsellers, just like TEDx talks aren’t TED talks. But at least the x in TEDx keeps it honest. But very few of us know the difference between a real bestseller and an Amazon best seller book.

 TED Vs TEDx talk

This is another lens with which to understand books and writing.

A TED Talk and a TEDx Talk may look the same on YouTube — someone pacing a red dot, armed with a headset mic and big ideas. But the difference can be like dining at a Michelin-star restaurant versus your local dhaba. Or being published by a well-known publisher vs self-publishing on Kindle.  

A TED Talk is the original, official deal. Speakers are handpicked by the TED organisation, often global leaders, scientists, or artists with serious credentials. Just like a book from Harper-Collins, a TED talk is professionally produced. The talks are filmed with Hollywood-level polish, and broadcast to millions on TED.com. Just like a Harper-Collins book is hand-picked, carefully edited, and made available across the country in bookstores.

A TEDx Talk, meanwhile, is TED’s younger cousin with a learner’s licence. The “x” stands for “independently organised” — which is polite code for “pretty much anyone with permission and some folding chairs can host one.” TEDx events may feature bright local thinkers, quirky inventors, or that one guy who insists that the Ganga River is inherently pure and needs no cleaning. He also wrote the Amazon best seller book on the topic. While TEDx does follow some TED rules (no selling, time limits), the difference can be drastic. Some talks shine and even graduate to TED’s main stage, but most languish on YouTube, watched only by the speaker’s extended family, some of whom do not make it to the end.

One easy way to judge a TEDx talk is on the basis of the number of views. A rare few TEDx talks – like Jaspreet Bindra’s TEDx talk on Blockchain – has 1.5 million views. Most TEDx talks – like most Amazon best seller books – tank at a few hundred views. Like the Kindle look-inside, the difference is usually apparent in the first minute or two.

{If you are wondering which self publishing option to choose, check out our blog post on – Amazon or Self-Publishing in India: 3 important options.}

In reality the “Amazon Bestseller” label is even easier than getting a TEDx talk – it is as easy as eating Jalebis. Like Google can be gamed using Search Engine Optimization a.k.a SEO (which is hard) – the Amazon bestseller list can also be gamed – but much more easily. 

Instead of simply claiming it, we decided to prove it. We started with a fake book titled “How to Become  a Bestseller”. By someone named Camelia Bloom (signifying any blooming idiot).  

Then we added a few pages of Lorem Ipsum — that Latin text designers use to test fonts. A few more tricks, and : Voila! We had a proud, orange-badged Amazon Bestseller. And in the process, we discovered that the emperor of online book retailing has no clothes. Or at least, no proofreading department. The gory details follow.

Chapter One: The Great Literary Fraud of 2025

Our grand plan began innocently enough. We wanted to see just how robust Amazon’s ranking system really was. Did it reward great writing? Original thought? A loyal audience? Or could it be tricked with the literary equivalent of a papaya in a wig?

Spoiler: definitely the papaya.

So we created a book. Not just any book — a book of Lorem Ipsum text repeated 15 times. We added some props like ‘Dedication’ and ‘Copyrights’ pages. We threw in an honest confessional author bio which said ‘Camelia Bloom is an emerging author of total bogus! This is Camelia’s Second, and definitely her last book.’  and uploaded it to Kindle Direct Publishing.

Price? Dirt cheap. Categories? Oh, we got crafty. Instead of duking it out in Fiction > Thrillers (where you’re up against the likes of Lee Child and Gillian Flynn), we snuck into obscure little corners of Amazon’s labyrinthine category tree. Ever explored Self-Help & Counselling > Compulsive Behavior > Hoarding ? Neither has anyone else. Perfect.

Just to be doubly safe, we added in eBooks in Foreign Languages › Other Languages › Manx  and then to be triply safe, we added Comics Manga & Graphic Novels › Comics & Graphic Novels › Indigenous › Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island.

Then came the masterstroke. We rallied a few friends, synchronised watches, and at 9 a.m. IST  on the specified morning, everyone clicked “Buy.”By 6:05 PM that evening, our nonsense book was officially an Amazon Best seller Book.

(One of my Type A friends even rated it 5 stars).

📦 AMAZON BESTSELLER!
#1 in Books > Memoir > Written Entirely by Cats Who Stepped on a Keyboard

“A purrfect stream-of-consciousness.”

Chapter Two: Bestseller, Schmestseller

Now, in theory, the word “bestseller” suggests that a book has sold… Well, a lot. Thousands of copies. Truckloads. That it’s elbowing aside Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code on airport bookstore shelves.

In reality? A “bestseller” on Amazon can mean you sold… eight copies. On the same afternoon. In a category no human has willingly browsed since 2014.

This is not just our experience. Other pranksters have done similar experiments. One author famously got his blank notebook (yes, literally a notebook with nothing in it) to #1 in a category. Another published a book titled Putting My Foot Down — 120 blank pages with a cover photo of a foot. It became an Amazon bestseller in its category.

So the term “bestseller” on Amazon doesn’t mean “lots of people want this.” It means “someone figured out how to work the system.”

It’s like winning the “World’s Best Dad” mug. Sure, you’re proud. But really, what choices did your child have? It’s just an ego-pleasing thing.

{Here’s your guide on How to sell books on Amazon in India: Amazon Ads for Authors}

🔥 NOW TRENDING
#1 in Religion > Self-Help > Spirituality > stop navel-gazing

“How to become a god-man with 1M instagram followers in 3 months.”

Chapter Three: The Many Roads to Bestseller Glory

There are, broadly speaking, three paths to that coveted orange sash:

1. The Honest Way
   This is what most people think happens. You write a fantastic book – or at least one with popular appeal. It catches on, readers love it, word of mouth spreads, thousands of copies sell, and voilà — bestseller. Think Amish Tripathi.
   
2. The Hacky Way
   You do what we did: bury your book in an obscure subcategory, orchestrate a handful of sales, and bam — you’re #1 in Non-Fiction > Outdoor Recreation > Squirrel Watching > Winter Sports Edition.
   
3. The Slightly Shady Way
   Some authors (and marketers) take it further. They form “bestseller campaigns,” recruiting dozens of friends, relatives, or — let’s be honest — bots to bulk-purchase copies during a 24-hour window. Others even give away their ebook for free, and because Amazon counts downloads, suddenly it’s a “bestseller.” Yes, you too can be a bestselling author without anyone ever spending a dime.
   

It’s like being crowned “Best Restaurant in Town” because you handed out free pakoras to everyone walking by.

🚀 TOP OF THE CHARTS
#1 in Science > Rocket Science > How to clean a spaceship with a pocha

“About ISRO, reads like Khusro”

Chapter Four: When Bestseller Badges Go Wild

Of course, this isn’t just a matter of harmless bragging rights. That orange tag carries weight. It tricks readers into thinking, Wow, lots of people must love this book! In reality, they may be buying a glorified Word doc filled with gibberish.

And it leads to some surreal outcomes. Consider:

• A parody book titled Images You Should Not Masturbate To became an Amazon bestseller.
  
• A colouring book called People of Walmart — featuring crude drawings of Walmart shoppers — became a bestseller.
  
• My Immortal, famously one of the worst pieces of fanfiction ever written, briefly held a bestseller tag.
  

In other words: Amazon’s “bestseller” label is less Pulitzer Prize and more You Won Tambola at the Diwali party 4 people attended.

🎨 READER FAVORITE
#1 in Health > Diets > Eating Only Samosas for 30 Days

“Bold, starchy, life-changing.”

Chapter Five: Why Amazon Lets This Happen

You’d think the world’s biggest bookseller would want to protect the sanctity of its “bestseller” label. But here’s the thing: Amazon thrives on motion, not meaning.

Its algorithms reward spikes. A sudden flurry of sales — even if it’s just ten copies in an afternoon — signals “momentum,” and the system promotes the book. Amazon doesn’t actually care if the content is lorem ipsum, blank pages, or unseemly pictures.

Why? Because Amazon isn’t in the business of curating quality. It’s in the business of selling anything. Books are widgets. Widgets that move fast look good. Widgets that look good sell more widgets. End of story.

The result: the “Amazon Bestseller” badge is less a reflection of reader love and more a reflection of Amazon’s obsession with velocity. It is an algorithm which can be fooled with short bursts of artificial hype.

💋 UNMISSABLE
#1 in Romance > Inter-Species > Vampire Octopus Love Stories

“Fifty tentacles of grey.”

Chapter Six: Confessions of a Bestseller

Now, full disclosure: we milked our orange badge for all it was worth. For a glorious 24 hours, we walked taller. We dropped it into conversations.

“Oh, you’re working on a novel? That’s cute. I’m a bestselling author myself.”

Did we mention that our book contained literally no English words? Minor detail.

But here’s the sobering bit: readers don’t know the difference. They see “bestseller,” assume credibility, and sometimes spend money on books that are, frankly, scams. That’s the real danger — it fools people into equating the badge with value. In fact, a complete stranger bought a copy of our fake book. We’re offering a refund.

📊 BUSINESS MUST-READ
#1 in Leadership > Business success > Tuition to Tarzan and back

“Lessons in how to build a great education business. From Byju’s.”

Chapter Seven: A Modest Proposal

So what’s the fix? A few humble suggestions:

1. Amazon could weigh sustained sales over time instead of short spikes.
   
2. Categories could be monitored for absurdities (no, “Books > Self-Help > For Parrots” doesn’t need a bestseller badge).
   
3. Maybe, just maybe, content could be checked for actual content.
   

But we’re not holding our breath. “Putting My Foot Down” happened in 2016 and nothing has changed since then, so….

In the meantime, perhaps it’s time for us to lean into the absurdity. Why not? Let’s all publish blank notebooks, meme collections, or transcripts of our last Zoom call. We’ll all be bestsellers by the weekend.

Epilogue: The Bestseller Everyone Deserves

The moral of this story? Next time you see “#1 Amazon Best seller book,” don’t assume anything. It might mean the author sold 50,000 copies. Or it might mean they convinced Meena Aunty and her two children + five college friends to click “Buy Now” on Tuesday afternoon.

Politely ask the “bestselling author” how many copies they’ve sold. If the number is a small one, don’t judge them, educate them. 

Tell them a bestseller is a book that sells a lot – not one that gets a tag on a website. Talk to them about the beauty in great writing. How a sentence can smoulder. What the craft of writing is, and why it matters. Also, tell them what the industry norm of a real bestseller is, and how hard it is to write a good book.

If they still don’t get it, judge them.  

Chances are, they fell for one of the snake-oil salesmen out there peddling a “How to write a bestseller in 7 days” formula.  

If our humble Lorem Ipsum experiment proves anything, it’s this: the Amazon Bestseller badge doesn’t crown great writers. It crowns great button-pushers.

Some call it equal opportunity. Isn’t there something wonderfully democratic about a world where a jhadu, a hawai chappal or a gibberish book can all be “bestsellers”?

The truth is, if everyone’s a bestselling author, then no one is. And that might be the biggest joke of all: that the only person these “bestselling authors” are fooling is themselves.