CACrown ArchivesHistory · sources · collections
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

ResultSource

USA book marketing company

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 20, 2025
Entity authorityQ17092715
Source-derived summary

ResultSource was a San Diego–based book marketing company that conducts "bestseller campaigns" on behalf of authors. The company states "We create campaigns that reach a specific goal, like: 'On the bestsellers list', or '100,000 copies sold'." For example, for a negotiated fee ResultSource will guarantee that a book becomes a bestseller. It does this through bulk book buying programs designed to manipulate the metrics used by Nielsen BookScan and the New York Times Best Seller list, among other strategies. As a result of ResultSource's business practices, Amazon.com has stopped doing business with the company. The company was founded by Kevin Small.

The details of ResultSource's business are private and few in the publishing industry will speak openly about it. "It's no wonder few people in the industry want to talk about bestseller campaigns. Put bluntly, they allow people with enough money, contacts, and know-how to buy their way onto bestseller lists." However, some information has come to light. In 2013, author Soren Kaplan discussed the matter with The Wall Street Journal in an article titled "The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike – How Are Some Authors Landing On Best-Seller Lists? They're Buying Their Way".

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “ResultSource” is uSA book marketing company. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through ResultSource, book and marketing, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2013—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2006-08-07. For this dossier, ResultSource, book and marketing is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “uSA book marketing company” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 20, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q17092715. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “ResultSource”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow ResultSource primary sources, ResultSource archive and ResultSource research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “ResultSource”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from ResultSource” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.