Posted on 08/14/2004 7:42:42 PM PDT by jmstein7
I'm being told by a reliable source that Unfit for Command may debut as number one one the NYT bestseller list. However, I do have a few questions...
1) In what week will it debut?
2) Will the NYT now have to review the book?
3) Will this affect the ability of the media to ignore it?
4) If it has been #1 on amazon, BN, etc. for quite some time, why hasn't it already hit the list?
You'll have to excuse my ignorance here, but I'm not really familiar with book list procedures at the NYT.
P.S. Please don't FReepmail me about my source - it shall remain anonymous.
The NYT bestseller list does not include amazon.com books. I got on the phone with them late one night when I had time to chat up a sales rep, so I know that for sure. I'm not sure about B&N online as B&N could fudge their online sales into the bookstore sales column.
Certain bookstores across the country are "reporting" stores that send their sales figures in every week to the NYT. Your favorite little corner booknook is most likely not on that list, so if you want to help a book succeed, hold your nose and buy from the chains, which all report to the Times.
Between the time books go on the shelves and the day they're reported to the Times, at least a week has to pass, perhaps even two, for enough sales to "report." When bookstores see that a book "has legs," is moving onto the list, they buy more copies for their shelves. Even you local booknook. But their sales still don't count as far as the NYT is concerned.
I had an email exchange with the pr director of Regnery Publishing who told me they had to go back to press for a 200,000-copy run. They didn't print enough in the first place. Perhaps the store you talked with has to wait for more copies to become available from the publisher. If so, Sept 1 would be about right.
Liberals can't read
I think that the NYT still had the Clinton book as #1 on Sunday. I told my husband that people cannot still be buying that book after all the rotten reviews and the length, there has to be more to those numbers than meets the eye.
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