Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 10:19:00 -0400
From: Kit Mason <kit at hers.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: SF and the Bestseller Lists
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Steve Smith wrote:
>
> The Washington Post has an interesting article on SF (and other genre
> literature) in relation to the "bestseller lists".  Basically, the
> current "bestseller lists" are compiled from sales at selected "elite"
> bookstores. They don't reflect popular tastes, and they're not intended
> to.

When I worked at Borders I learned that most of the "bestsellers" were
pre-determined by the publishers.  A very few "bestseller lists" are
compiled by people phoning bookstores, including small independent
bookstoress -- the NY Times was one, though that may have chanbed.  I
was in a small bookstore in Clarendon several years ago when the owner
got the call from the Times to ask what had sold in the past week.  The
owner told me that if a book had sold more than a thousand copies across
the country, it would be in the running for the list.

The list system may be different for SF and genre lit than for other
books simply because the publishers and the stores see them as
different, though we don't.  However, any time you see "bestseller" on a
book jacket, especially when that book has just arrived in the store,
consider it to be the publisher's opinion and not something supported by
sales until you can verify it elsewhere.

Kit