Rowling was outed the month before.
From the PW article:
Quote:
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tweak its children’s bestseller lists, separating hardcover middle grade and young adult titles from paperback and e-book bestsellers.
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I don't see that as fudging or jiggering just adding more categories to aid in discovery.
Everyone tweaks their best selling list. USA Today does, NYT does, Amazon does, B&N does, etc. Speaking of Amazon, Author Central determined Amazon's list is off by 14% because they add in KU borrows. It's one reason why the lists never match up. Another is Amazon counts pre-orders while other don't.
Going back to Howey's list I don't see anything overtly fraudulent in the list for that week. Three big names and two romances. We never underestimate the enthusiasm of a romance reader. The article was quick to say bad, bad, bad, fake, fake, fake without concrete proof or numbers. It's ok to criticize but you better have irrefutable data.