I work at a large Christian publisher. The Times consistently leaves books that should have been best sellers of the list, or downgrades them significantly. Joel Rosenberg is an example. Joel’s most recent book, The Third Target, was 4th on BookScan (the WSJ uses BookScan) but didn’t even crack the top 10 on the Times list.
Even if Cruz did sell some bulk copies it still sold enough other copies to make the list.
1) The New York Times list really isn’t a “best sellers” list. The Times uses a proprietary formula to compile its list. From what we’ve learned tracking multiple books that have achieved NYT best sellers status (or just missed for a variety of reasons), the Times places quite a bit of weight on books sold through independent book stores (not Amazon or B&N, although those are weighed as well). It also weighs wide geographic distribution heavily. It wants its best sellers to sell throughout the country, not just one region of the country. For example, our book with Gene Chizik, the former football coach at Auburn, sold well more than enough copies to become a NYT best seller but because most of those titles were sold in the southeast it didn’t make the NY Times list. Drew Brees’s book Coming Back Stronger was the No. 1 best seller on the WSJ list but was not No. 1 on the NY Times list.
2) Best sellers lists such as The Wall Street Journal list utilizes Nielsen BookScan, which records about 70 percent of all book sales. Its lists are based on books “scanned,” no matter where or through what outlet. If an author has very little distribution through anything but Amazon, BookScan will record those sales and it will help an author make the WSJ list but it won’t help them make the Times list. We’ve had multiple books (Drew Brees and Beth Moore to name two) who have sold the most copies in a week but have not been No. 1 NYT best sellers (both reached as high as No. 2)
3) The significant (NYT, WSJ, PW) best sellers lists are tabulated over one-week time periods. For example, a book can sell 1,000 books per week for years and never make a best sellers list. Tyndale author Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven has more than one million copies in print yet has never made the NYT list because it hasn’t had a week where it’s sold enough copies to make the list. Other books who have had one good week yet never many books outside of a particular week have been best sellers. That’s why you see book launches where authors are trying to do a lot of media appearances and book signings in a single week’s time.
4) You don’t have to sell a lot of copies to make the New York Times best sellers list. Last week, for example, only four hardcover non-fiction titles sold more than 10,000 copies, of which Ted Cruz’s book was one. Nine fiction titles reached that mark last week. The New York Times also has a variety of different lists and categories that have really watered down the significance of making such a list.
5) The New York Times has responded to Cruz’s and Simon and Schuster’s claim that Cruz was intentionally left off of the list by contending that Cruz’s sales were mostly bulk sales through his PAC. While this may be true (Amazon has gone on record to say that they don’t see any indication that it is true), the Times does flag books that they deem as having heavy bulk sales with an asterisk (it actually looks like a cross). These books still make the list but receive a marking indicating bulk sales. The Times could have marked Cruz’s book in this manner but chose to leave it off altogether. Unfortunately, the Times isn’t always right when marking such book as they’ve marked several of our books in this manner that received no apparent bulk sales. At times it seems as if the Times thinks that if a Christian or conservative book sells well that it must be because of bulk sales, which isn’t the case.
So, should Ted Cruz’s book been included on the NY Times list? It would be hard to argue that it shouldn’t have been included. Even if he sold a number of copies through his PAC (he contends he did not), he certainly sold enough other copies to make the list. Interestingly, the attention that this has gotten will spike sales of Cruz’s book (it’s No. 32 on Amazon this hour) and it will very likely be on the list this week, although in a lower spot than where it should have debuted last week.
Outstanding elucidation of bestseller rankings! I learned something today.
Thanks for that interesting inside info! As a follow-up, do you happen to know if a.) Hillary’s and Obama’s books had a lot of bulk sales, and, b.) did they make the NYT list? If the answer is ‘yes’ to both, then Cruz should definitely use this as an opportunity to trash then NYT for the leftist rag it is.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing the info.
Very useful information! Thank you.