Fans Are Questioning The Legitimacy Of Stassi Schroeder's Book Sales
Stassi Schroeder, fired "Vanderpump Rules" star turned memoirist, announced on her Instagram that her latest book, "Off With My Head," had made the New York Times Bestsellers list. Yay! Or did it? Boo! Despite Schroeder's celebratory post, some fans are suspicious that her book sales aren't quite what they seem. And they may have good reason for this.
"Holy s**t. 'Off With My Head' is a New York Times Bestseller!!! Omg. It feels freaking unreal to be recognized twice," Schroeder wrote in her May 4 Instagram post, which also included screenshots showing her memoir coming in eighth place in the Advice and How-to book category. But, as Gawker noted, a few eagle-eyed fans on Reddit pointed out that Schroeder's book title is accompanied by a small dagger icon, which indicates that the Times believes the book sales may have been artificially inflated by somebody buying the books in bulk.
It's not exactly unusual, though. If you look carefully, you'll notice that the titles in positions one, two, nine, and 10 in Schroeder's screenshot are also accompanied by the tell-tale icon.
Stassi Schroeder's new book may have been bought in bulk
In their Reddit post, user Youarelosingme wrote, "Caught the screenshot before Stassi deleted a braggadocio post for making the NYT Bestsellers list – did she realize the dagger exposed her bulk purchases?" The Redditor accompanied the post with the screenshot from Stassi Schroeder's Instagram post, with the addition of a helpful red circle pointing out the dagger icon. J'accuse!
Well, hold on just a sec. It's possible this little dagger isn't quite the smoking gun people seem to think it is. On the same post, another Redditor pointed out, "Another way to be a NYT best seller is to offer a preorder option, so when your book is released, it looks like you have thousands of orders week one when it's really preorders spanning several months." They continued, "Not saying she did this but this is how many authors / companies produce 'best sellers.'"
Will we ever know the truth of this mystery? To put it simply — probably not. But we're not going to stop you from making your own theories.