Massive bulk purchase by conservative PAC helps Josh Hawley's book make bestseller lists: report

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) received massive backing for his new book from a conservative Political Action Committee.

"Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley's The Tyranny of Big Tech sold 20,900 print books in its first week, according to NPD BookScan data provided to Forbes, landing on bestseller lists after his first publisher Simon & Schuster dumped the book over his objections to the presidential election results—and with the help of the GOP book-buying machine and one of the senator's favorite targets: Amazon," Forbesreported Friday.

"The Times' bestseller list listed Hawley's book with a dagger symbol, which the publication uses to denote books that made the list with the help of bulk purchases or other potentially 'suspicious' methods," Forbes explained. "Hawley's book, like a number of his GOP colleagues before him, has benefitted from a large purchase by a Republican donor group: So far, the Federal Election Commission data shows the Senate Conservatives Fund paid Hawley's publisher Regnery Publishing $64,750 in February for 'donor books' supporting Hawley."

Paul Farhi of The Washington Post broke down the math: