Episodes

  • Amazon Best Seller Claims and What's Really Behind Them

    Amazon Best Seller Claims and What's Really Behind Them
    May 20 2026
    Bestseller is one of the easiest claims to buy and one of the hardest to earn.
    Episode 04 of Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast. Neal Winsomer breaks down the Amazon bestseller scam, what a real bestseller looks like, and how to catch a fake claim before it sells you on someone who has not earned the title.
    Amazon has over 16,000 book categories. Many of those categories sell only a few copies per day, and Amazon's bestseller calculation runs every hour and resets every hour. Whoever sells the most copies in a given category in the last hour wins the orange number one bestseller banner for that category.
    In 2016, entrepreneur Brent Underwood uploaded a picture of his bare foot to Amazon. No story. No words. Just the foot. Priced at the 99 cent minimum, listed in two of Amazon's smallest, lowest-traffic categories, and bought three times by Underwood himself. Within minutes the orange number one bestseller banner appeared on the page. Screenshot taken. Forever after, he could claim Amazon bestseller author.


    This brief episode walks through:
    - How the Amazon bestseller calculation actually works and why it makes the scam easy
    - Sharing the Brent Underwood case as the canonical proof
    - What a real bestseller looks like (sustained sales velocity, hundreds to thousands of organic reviews, sales ranks that stay low for an extended period)
    - Some ways to catch a fake claim by checking the global Best Sellers Rank on the book's product page (real deal under 5,000; fraud over 300,000)
    - Some ways to audit the category the author claims by looking at the number two and three books in that same category
    - Where to vet beyond Amazon: Goodreads reviews and discussion threads, Writer Beware at writerbeware.blog, the ALLi Watchdog at selfpublishingadvice.org, Authors Guild scam alerts at authorsguild.org, and a reverse search of the author's name plus "scam" or "ResultSource"

    Stop letting marketing manipulation trick you. Real bestsellers sell to thousands of global readers, not 10 people in a hidden database node. The orange banner is marketing, not proof. Expect more. Dig deeper. See past the shadows of what people are really doing to promote online.


    Available on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.


    Calling Out the Shadows with Neal Winsomer.
    A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast.

    Consider following the show for new episodes.
    NealWinsomer.com
    NealWinsomerPublishing.com
    info@nealwinsomer.com

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • You Don't Need to Read, Buy, or Review My Book

    You Don't Need to Read, Buy, or Review My Book
    May 17 2026
    You Don't Need to Read, Buy, or Review My Book. Episode 03 of Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast. Author Neal Winsomer on choosing not to ask readers to read, buy, or review his upcoming book.

    Neal opens: "You don't need to read my book, you don't need to buy my book, and you don't need to review my book. I doubt my book will change your life."

    He questions why authors let subjective claims about a reader's response come off as objective truths, and shares why he is not asking for five stars.

    Calling Out the Shadows: A Father's Stand Against the Current is available June 16, 2026, in paperback, hardcover, eBook, audiobook, Library Audio Edition, large print, and the Skimmer's Edition.

    Calling Out the Shadows with Neal Winsomer.
    A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast.

    Consider following the show for new episodes.
    NealWinsomer.com
    NealWinsomerPublishing.com
    info@nealwinsomer.com

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • When the Lie Becomes the Truth She Knows

    When the Lie Becomes the Truth She Knows
    May 12 2026
    Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast, Episode 02. Listen to Neal Winsomer walk through what happens inside narcissistic personality disorder when pathological lying crosses the line from deliberate deception into the person's own belief. He shares his experience watching his ex-wife construct narratives over time that, at some point, became absolute and undeniable to her, regardless of evidence to the contrary.

    The audio episode separates two patterns: lies the speaker knows are lies, and lies the speaker has so thoroughly committed to that they read as truth in her own mind. Examples include being shown a text in real time and being told "you edited my text," and the slow accumulation of crafted narratives that no longer respond to evidence. There is something inside NPD, an element of cognitive dissonance, that lets a person genuinely believe their own constructed truth.

    Comfort to me would have said argue the lie out of her. A Clarity Over Comfort approach says step back, document, and let a third party hold the picture instead. Calling out the shadows is not about winning the room with a narcissist. It is about leaving a trail others can read.

    Calling Out the Shadows: A Father's Stand Against the Current is available June 16, 2026 in paperback, hardcover, eBook, audiobook, Library Audio Edition, large print, and a Skimmer's Edition.

    Length: 504 pages. Audiobook runtime: 14 hours 9 minutes, author narrated.

    Calling Out the Shadows with Neal Winsomer.
    A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast.

    Consider following the show for new episodes.
    NealWinsomer.com
    NealWinsomerPublishing.com
    info@nealwinsomer.com
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • Welcome to Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast

    Welcome to Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast
    Apr 29 2026
    Welcome to Calling Out the Shadows with Neal Winsomer, a Clarity Over Comfort Podcast.
    This first episode introduces the show: what it is, what it isn't, who it's for, and what's coming.

    The podcast draws from the narrative, themes, and frameworks of the book Calling Out the Shadows: A Father's Stand Against the Current, and continues them in conversation, episode by episode.

    Topics this season will explore include high conflict communication, co-parenting with a narcissist, parental alienation, AI-supported court documentation, pattern recognition, parenting plan approaches, working through and building AI prompts for documentation and court preparation, and protected narrative work for protecting, telling, and publishing sensitive stories.

    This is not a how-to show. It is not a venting show. It is one person's subjective account of what he did, why it held up, and how the framework behind it might apply to others. No claims to expertise. No prescriptions. What you take from it is entirely yours.

    The book Calling Out the Shadows: A Father's Stand Against the Current is available June 16, 2026 in paperback, hardcover, eBook, audiobook, large print, and a Skimmer's Edition.

    Calling Out the Shadows with Neal Winsomer.
    A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast.

    Consider following the show for new episodes.
    NealWinsomer.com
    NealWinsomerPublishing.com
    info@nealwinsomer.com
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins