Former First Lady Jill Biden’s memoir had a brief run atop the New York Times bestseller list before tumbling out of the rankings just weeks later — fueling online speculation that its lofty debut owed more to bulk book orders than to sustained reader demand.  It was trash.

     “View from the East Wing,” which was published by Simon & Schuster’s imprint Gallery Books, debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction list on June 21 with a dagger (†) symbol indicating that retailers reported some bulk purchases.   By the following week, it had slipped to No. 3, and it has since fallen off the list altogether.  The sharp drop has sparked claims on social media that the 299-page book reached the top through orchestrated buying campaigns instead of real consumer demand.   Former FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver was among the most prominent critics, writing on X that the memoir “debuted at #1 on the NYT due to astroturfed bulk orders” before noting that it was “completely” off the list two weeks later and calling such a rapid decline “very rare.” 

     Publishing experts caution that the reality is more nuanced. “I don’t think there is anything sinister about it,” Lauren Cobello, founder and CEO of Leverage with Media PR, told The Post.  “I think it’s a strategy, a smart strategy for how people are engaging their network so that they can get more books in the hands of their readers,” she said of bulk buying.  Cobello, whose agency specializes in launching bestselling books, said bulk purchases are a routine feature of modern publishing campaigns — particularly for politicians, celebrities and high-profile authors embarking on national book tours.