Pub Rants

Category: bestseller lists

Speaking of NYT Bestseller List

STATUS: Frustrated!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? AFRICA by Toto

I have to admit that I was a little too distracted this morning to actually work because I was online attempting to buy Colorado Rockies World Series tickets instead. The tickets were only available for sale via the web.

And now they’ve just posted a press release stating that because there were 8.5 million hits to the website, it went down in about 15 minutes and only 500 lucky buyers were actually able to purchase tickets.

I should apologize to all my clients right now that I did indeed waste 2 futile hours trying to buy tickets…

Oops.

As for the Surrey Writers Conference genre lunch, it was a hoot and an absolute blast. Everyone at my table said “of course chick lit is dead.” Old news (those Surrey Writers are so savvy!) and we ended up chatting about all sorts of great topics. Truly a delight.

And since we’ve just been talking about New York Times Bestseller lists, I saw this article today about that very same subject. Not sure it sheds too much more light on the subject but it is interesting.

From tidbits from the article by Clark Hoyt:
“THE New York Times best-seller list is a powerful and mysterious institution that both reports and drives the sales of books around the nation…”

“One of the first things I learned is that much of what the publishing world thinks it knows about the list is wrong or out of date…”

“Another misconception is that booksellers are surveyed only on a list of titles determined by publishers’ shipments, keeping “sleeper” books — distributed in smaller numbers — off the list…”

The NYT List

STATUS: It’s kind of hard to top yesterday but still, it is Friday and that’s worth celebrating too!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? MY GIRL by The Temptations

How books make the NYT list is actually closely guarded proprietary information that the New York Times does not share.

However, what little is known about it is this: titles are selected based on a percentage of sales done in a certain period of time.

I’d tell you more but then, you know, I’d have to kill you.

NYT List Baby!

STATUS: We are over the moon!!!!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY by Donna Summer

Sara and I can barely sit still because we’ve just heard the news.

Ally Carter’s CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY has just hit the New York Times Bestseller List (Oct. 21) coming in at #8.

Congrats Ally!!!! You are now a New York Times Bestselling author.