BURLINGTON, Vt. – a local self-published author woke up to the surprise of her life when she discovered her debut romantic young adult novel landed at top of the New York Times bestseller’s list, a prestigious commendation that often falls out of reach for even some of the most successful authors.

Rebecca Dunlap, a junior-level data entry clerk for the local hospital but studied creative writing while attending the University of Vermont in hopes of becoming a published author. She had dreams of selling a book to one of the big publishing houses and seeing her story stocked on the shelves of local bookstores. However, after years of struggling to find an agent to help sell her book to a publisher, she opted to attempt the self-publishing route.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, said Rebecca Dunlap, describing how she felt when she saw her book’s title on the bestseller’s list. “I made an author account of Instagram and TikTok but I think I only have about twenty-five followers on each. Other than that, the only people who knew I wrote a book were my family and coworkers. I was expecting to sell maybe a dozen and give out copies for Christmas, or something. I never expected this. I’m speechless.”

The credibility of the achievement has come under fire, however, when it was discovered that 10,000 of the 10,002 copies of the books ordered this week came from one person: the author’s tech-illiterate grandmother.

“When I learned that it was my Grammy who ordered so many of my books, I was shook,” said Dunlap. “I knew there had to be some kind of mistake. She’s living in an assisted living home and is limited to a fixed income. There’s no way she should’ve been able to buy that many of anything.”

As it turns out, Dunlap’s grandmother had gone onto Amazon to order a single copy of the book. However, when nothing happened when she clicked the “Buy Now” button, she clicked it again. Then again. And again. Still flabbergasted by the website, she asked her friend Norm to assist her. He continued to click the button until one of the residency staff members intervened. But the damage was already done.

“I’ve been trying to talk with Amazon to get the order cancelled,” said Dunlap. “Unfortunately, the customer service person said that because it was such a large order, he needed to escalate the case number to supervisor. I’m still in awe that her credit card company didn’t flag the numerous transactions as fraud.”

“We actually did call Mrs. Ferguson (Dunlap’s grandmother) and said she had nearly $150,000 worth of charges on her card from Amazon,” said a representative authorized to speak on behalf of the bank. “Her credit limit was only $5,000, so we told her we flagged it as suspicious, but she said she was buying her granddaughter’s book and that it wasn’t a mistake. The interest and late fees on this are going to be astronomical.”

All 10,000 copies of the book were delivered to the assisted living facility, but it lacked the appropriate space to store all of them before a resolution on a return could be finalized with Amazon. When news of Mrs. Ferguson’s mishap spread among her fellow residents, several hatched a plan to help.

“We all bought a copy and told our families about what happened,” said Sally Berry, a fellow resident at the assisted living center. “Many of our sons and daughters have said they’d be happy to purchase a copy, too. All the proceeds are going to help pay for all the books. I think we might even start a book club.”

The efforts have made a dent in the overhead, having sold more than twenty copies of the book, which Rebecca has agreed to sign in order to add a little bit of personal flair.

Sign up for the Alpine 6 Action News newsletter and never miss another article!

Discover more from Alpine 6 Action News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.