Ankit Fadia claims many of his books are "International Bestsellers" and claims to have been a "New York Times Bestselling Author". He has made these claims for over five years, and as recently as November 2010. Like most of Fadia's claims, these are completely fabricated.
Searching Google for mention of Ankit Fadia and "bestselling" finds a wide variety of claims, all from Fadia, journalists who didn't question him or companies that rent him out for talks. Each claim refers to Fadia writing multiple internationally best-selling books and a "record" number of copies sold. Unfortunately for Fadia, he does not keep his lies straight and they become obvious when put together.
Despite repeated claims of being a "New York Times Bestselling Author", there is no evidence of this. Fadia's first book, The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking has not appeared on the New York Times list any year since it was published in 2002. This can be verified on Wikipedia's archived list or the Hawes.com archived list.
Looking at his claims regarding his age, number of books written and the amount of copies sold does not follow a real timeline. Further, in recent years, his claims have grown considerably more grandiose. If you believe Fadia, then his books have sold as many copies as "Catch-22", "The Cat in the Hat" or "A Brief History of Time". Based on his past claims and approximating future sales, in three years he will have sold more books than "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", "The Horse Whisperer" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
Note: Dates with ~~ are approximations based on his age. According to his Facebook page, he was born May 24, 1985.
| Date | Source | Age | Books Written | Books Sold |
| 2010-06-28 | anandrahi.com bio | 25 | 14 | 10 million |
| 2009-06-~~ | Click Asia Summit | 24 | 14 | 10 million |
| 2008-12-19 | India PRWire (PDF) | 23 | 14 | 3 million |
| 2008-12-16 | India PRWire | 23 | 14 | -- |
| 2007-06-~~ | GDA Spotlight bio (PDF) | 22 | 11 | 2 million |
| 2006-06-~~ | imtcdl.ac.in bio | 21 | 13 | -- |
| 2006-06-~~ | docstoc.com bio | 21 | 6 | 250k |
| 2005-06-~~ | sis.smu.edu.sg bio | 20 | 6 | 250k |
| 2004-06-~~ | scribd.com archived bio | 19 | "several" | 80k |
Looking at the table above, one has to wonder how he went from selling 3 million copies in 2008, some 9 years after it was published, to 10 million just 6 months later. How Fadia had written 13 books by the time he was 21 years old, but 11 books when he turned 22 years old? Perhaps Fadia could explain how he wrote 7 books in 2006 alone, with his travel and speaking schedule factored in. Regardless, that many books in one year should indicate the probable quality of the material.
Checking the 'Books' link on Fadia's site shows 10 books, not 14. The site Fadia promotes to purchase his book, Odyssey 360, shows 11 books and Amazon appears to show 13 books.
[Update: Shortly after posting this article, Fadia has tweeted clearing up the rest of the books. Per his tweets, #11 is Tips and Tricks on Linux (co-author, Portugese language only), #12 is Little Genius: The AF Way (used for course for kids + as part of corporate social responsibility), #13 is PGD Course Books for Semester 1 & 2 (not sold, textbook for students only) and #14 is Cracking Admissions in Colleges Abroad (co-author). Fadia did not address the New York Times Bestseller claim nor the total number of books sold.]
When reading a bio written by a charlatan or the company pimping him out for high dollar talks, it is natural that you may not suspect a number or claim. However, when looking at all of his claims together in a simple timeline, it becomes abundantly clear that Fadia is a serial liar.
