“Best seller” depends on the metric being used, this article has some simple explanations, including how Amazon.com niche categories can be gamed to get a book to technically be a best seller.

Because Amazon refreshes ranks at least once a day (often hourly), a well-timed promotional spike can crown you a #1 “best seller” in dozens of micro-categories. Amazon itself acknowledges that ranks are relative and heavily weighted toward recent activity. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing One TikTok push or email blast can deliver the screenshot—hence the glut of “international best-selling authors” whose lifetime sales barely break four figures.

In something like “Rao’s Homemade” sauces, the word “Homemade” is part of the registered name of the sauce (if you look close you can see the little “R” symbol for a Registered Trademark on the label), not a defined descriptor that needs to meet some kind of legal standard. Yes, it is trying to trick you into thinking of it as being less industrially made than it really is. Marketing.

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