A reason to doubt Ayn Rand's current book sales

A prominent cult founded by a science fiction writer reportedly boosted the sales of his novels published posthumously by having its shills buy bulk quantities of them. I've wondered if the Ayn Rand Institute does something similar these days in an astroturfing effort to try to keep Ayn Rand's influence more or less current.

Well, what does this sound like to you?

Introduction to Ayn Rand, Objectivism and ARI

High Schools: Free Books to Teachers, Essay Contests

Our educational initiatives begin in the high schools—introducing young people to Ayn Rand’s books and ideas.

First, ARI offers free copies of Ayn Rand’s books to teachers across North America. Through this Free Books to Teachers program, educators receive, upon request, free classroom sets of Anthem or The Fountainhead—along with teacher’s guides and lesson plans. Some classrooms are also eligible to receive Atlas Shrugged.

To date, more than 1.4 million copies of these Ayn Rand novels have been donated to 30,000 teachers in 40,000 classrooms across the United States and Canada. Based on a projected shelf life of five years per book, we estimate that more than 3 million young people have been introduced to Ayn Rand’s books and ideas as a result of our programs to date.

The chart below depicts our progress to date and future projections for the cumulative number of Ayn Rand’s books read in high schools.

ARI sponsors annual high school essay contests, in which students submit essays based on questions drawn from Ayn Rand’s novels Anthem, We the Living, and The Fountainhead. Since this program began in 1986, more than 255,000 students have taken part in these competitions. ARI has awarded more than $895,000 in prizes to winners and runners-up. During the last academic school year, more than 24,000 students competed for $99,625 in prize money—making this the largest such educational competition in the United States.

High Schools: Free Books to Teachers, Essay Contests

Our educational initiatives begin in the high schools—introducing young people to Ayn Rand’s books and ideas.

First, ARI offers free copies of Ayn Rand’s books to teachers across North America. Through this Free Books to Teachers program, educators receive, upon request, free classroom sets of Anthem or The Fountainhead—along with teacher’s guides and lesson plans. Some classrooms are also eligible to receive Atlas Shrugged.

ARI Educational Programs

To date, more than 1.4 million copies of these Ayn Rand novels have been donated to 30,000 teachers in 40,000 classrooms across the United States and Canada. Based on a projected shelf life of five years per book, we estimate that more than 3 million young people have been introduced to Ayn Rand’s books and ideas as a result of our programs to date.

The chart below depicts our progress to date and future projections for the cumulative number of Ayn Rand’s books read in high schools.

ARI sponsors annual high school essay contests, in which students submit essays based on questions drawn from Ayn Rand’s novels Anthem, We the Living, and The Fountainhead. Since this program began in 1986, more than 255,000 students have taken part in these competitions. ARI has awarded more than $895,000 in prizes to winners and runners-up. During the last academic school year, more than 24,000 students competed for $99,625 in prize money—making this the largest such educational competition in the United States.

Essay contest participants

Finally, we offer free copies of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged to the thousands of students who participate in our annual essay contests—giving them the opportunity to further their reading of Ayn Rand as they proceed through high school and go on to colleges and universities.

Of course, the Ayn Rand Institute doesn't get these books for "free." It probably buys them at a wholesale rate from the publisher, and this has to show up as inflated sales figures for Rand's novels. Without the astroturfing, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged would probably have started their decline into obscurity by now.