What’s in a Bestseller?
The algorithms are kept so secret as to make Google’s search terms an open book. What I’m talking about, of course, is how bestseller lists are devised and maintained. Who decides? Based on what? Every author wants to know; and anyone who claims to know is deluding him or herself.
Some authors choose to take matters into their own hands. Back when the New York Times bestseller list was based on sales alone, Jacqueline Susann bought enough copies of her new book, The Valley of the Dolls to fill her garage … and launch her to the top of the bestseller list, thus making the continued status into a self-fulfilling loop. Did the book deserve such status? Of course it didn’t; but that’s not the way the lists work.
As long as there are systems, there will be people gaming the systems.
We’re seeing a similar phenomenon now, with all the marketers shilling programs to send one’s book to the top of the Amazon bestseller list. It’s one of the few lists that can still be manipulated, and authors with enough contacts (usually marketing writers themselves) are following the plan of getting a vast number of people to purchase the book at the same time, thus catapaulting it to the top of the list for a precious fifteen seconds of fame, and thereafter claiming the title of bestselling author for themselves. It’s dishonest and manipulative, but it’s — at least as of this writing — still feasible.
Yet the list from the New York Times remains the most impressive and elusive of them all. And, as we learn from the Times’s own Clark Hoyt in this op-ed, it seems that the Times’s assessments are byzantine enough to put the mystery novels that grace its list to shame.
One of the first things I learned is that much of what the publishing world thinks it knows about the list is wrong or out of date. For example: The Book Review editor, Sam Tanenhaus, has nothing to do with compiling it, though it is published weekly in his section; it is handled by the news surveys department. The list isn’t tabulated from paper questionnaires sent to booksellers; it’s entirely computerized, after a recently completed two-year project. The roster of outlets surveyed is not adjusted only once every five years; it changes constantly.
The best route? Write a good book. No; write a great book. Market the hell out of it. Speak at libraries and church fairs and conferences. Seek out reviews from reputable sources and use them as part of your marketing. Leave the rest to the gods.
And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in About Writing, Books, Getting Published, Publicity, Publishers, Publishing on November 7th, 2007