Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 10:55:44 -0400
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: SF and the Bestseller Lists
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

> kit at hers.com 05/09/02 10:19AM >>
>>
>>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

In the UK the bestseller list as reported in The Bookseller is through =
Whitaker BookTrak, which receives data from "about 6000 high street, =
Internet and independent retailers."  & the number of copies sold over a 4 =
week period is listed.  No question as to what is selling and by how much. =
 The list is broken down into

"Top 40",
"Top 15 original fiction",
"Top 15 mass market fiction",
"Top 15 hardback non-fiction",
"Top 15 paperback non-fiction",
"Top 10 children's fiction",
"Top 10 children's non-fiction"
"Top 10 children's audiobooks".

It should be interesting to see what really is selling.

mjw