Writer Mark Dawson has missing his Major 10 posture in the Sunday Occasions bestseller charts for his thriller The Cleaner soon after revealing that he acquired 400 copies himself to get a greater position.

Reserve product sales observe Nielsen BookScan started investigating just after Dawson disclosed on his podcast, The Self Publishing Display, that he experienced positioned an order for 400 hardback copies of The Cleaner with a children’s bookshop in Salisbury, for a price tag of £3,600. Dawson claimed he was motivated to do this soon after viewing he was in 13th spot on Nielsen’s midweek chart, and that he contacted viewers abroad to see if they would order the novel from him if he purchased the books. The purchase intended the novel, printed by independent press Welbeck, moved up to eighth location in the Sunday Occasions hardback fiction checklist.

Dawson’s actions have been criticised by other authors for gaming the method.

Nielsen advised the Bookseller that soon after at first believing that the sales had been element of a virtual guide signing, it had concluded that they “did not meet its criteria”. It will now recalculate the charts for the 7 days ending 4 July, and the Sunday Periods will also challenge a correction.

“With latest situations contacting for alternative ways to attain income we are obtaining to keep track of and judge many conditions on an unique foundation and we apologise that on this celebration we misunderstood the intentions of this revenue transaction,” Nielsen explained.

Welbeck mentioned that whilst it “respect[ed] Nielsen’s selection to problem a correction to the book’s chart placement if this was in any way a violation of its terms”, Dawson’s “actions have been purely in response to requests for copies from his followers all-around the world”.

“The fulfilment of these orders to his admirers has been misconstrued and the morality of this motion called into issue,” said the publisher. “Copies of The Cleaner are now becoming dispatched by Mark’s crew to readers in the US, Australia and in the course of Europe.”

On Twitter, Dawson wrote: “If I was intent on ‘gaming the system’ I would have bought 10k copies, sat on them without end and been range one. (I would not have talked over it on a well known podcast, possibly.)”