3 Facts About Bestseller Lists and Launch Timing

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Are you wondering why some of the best print books you ever read are not in the bestseller lists and other titles you might not find well written make it into the New York Times?  In a former article How Bestsellers are Made I explained that being listed as a #1 bestseller title doesn’t necessarily mean an outstanding, brilliant book, it just shows that it was sold in a certain week, by certain vendors, in its category more often than other books.

1. There is not only one bestseller list, but many.

2. January is the #1 launch time for Self-Publishers to land a bestseller.

3. What’s an Author To Do To Compete?

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1. There is not only one bestseller list, but many.
The New York Times and Publishers Weekly rank books up to the top 15, while USA Today ranks just the numbers, no separations, no categories, just the 150 top sellers of a certain week.  USA TODAY surveys book sales and gathers weekly sales data to create a list, comprised of the week’s 150 best-selling titles. The USA TODAY print edition publishes the first 50 titles and the online list includes all 150.  USA TODAY also pulls these titles onto a single list, whereas the New York Times divides these lists up by genre.  Publishers Weekly compiles 9 different lists from statistics that are  compiled at 3,000 bookstores. PW’s lists are meant to be useful to bookstores,librarians, literary agents and publishing houses.
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The NYT list is reporting book sales (of about 60-75% of book retailers) relative to a specific week, which means: a title will land on the NYT Bestsellers list if it sold “the most” books in a certain category in a certain week. And only certain bookstores or booksellers are reporting to the New York Times. There is also the consideration of sales surge. This surge often happens during a very short period of time and doesn’t always have to equate to huge numbers, it’s the velocity of the push that matters. But it gets even more complicated…  See this Wikipedia articles and its resources.

Heather MacLean, herself a NYT bestseller explains: “A #1 NYT Bestseller in one category could have sold 10 times as many copies as the #1 Bestseller in a different category. Similarly, the #1 NYT Bestseller in one category might have sold considerably less than the #21 book of a more competitive or crowded category that didn’t get to make the list.” “You can break onto the NYT List in certain categories with sales as small as 3,000 copies sold. It all depends on the category and what else you’re competing with in a certain week.”

NYT Bestseller status, and be it only for one week, is certainly an exceptional promotion and sales argument for your book – if it is not self-published – as the NYT does not count Indie ebooks.  Read more details on Heather’s blog.

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2. January is the #1 launch time for Self-Publishers to land a bestseller.
Trade publishers divide their catalogs and book launches into three seasons: Fall, including the holidays, Spring, and Summer. The Fall season is the most important one, the time where they launch their mega bestsellers from celebrity authors. During this time all other writers have to compete against all the big names – all the way through the holiday season when the most books are purchased.

During this time it is almost impossible for non-brand name writers to hit the bestseller lists. Bestseller author Kristine Rusch  calculated that in November and early December, it might take ten to 100 times more copies per week for a book to hit a bestseller list than it does in any other season. She advices to publish it in January with a lot of publicity.
“Publishers try to spread their publication dates away from other companies’ brand names for just that reason.  No one wants a Stephen King book to go head to head with a James Patterson book and a Nora Roberts book in the first week of publication (for all three books).  Only one of them would be able to hit number one on the list.”  The next best time is the early Summer season, May and June, think summer reading!

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3. What’s an Author To Do To Compete?
How many copies you need to sell of your book will often depend on when you release it. The January release might a good one, alone for the fact that many people get Amazon gift cards and use them for new books.  Never have your books’ sales starting on a Friday or God-forbid on a Saturday.  Rather start at the beginning of the week. If you go with a big publisher make the launch month and the day of the week part of your author contract.  During slower weeks you will be able to hit the list with fewer sales than you may need in weeks saturated with popular releases. However, 99% of all bestseller list status is unpredictable anyway…
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The Midwest Book Review advices:
To make the USA TODAY lists, you will have to promote to Books & Co. in Dayton, Hungry Mind in St. Paul, Kroch’s & Brentano’s in Chicago, Oxford in Atlanta, Tattered Cover in Denver, Ingram in Nashville and sell to the chains B. Dalton, Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, Crown, Bookland, Books-A-Million, Bookstop/Bookstar, Brentano’s, Doubleday Book Shops, Lauriat’s, Royal Discount Book Stores, and Scribners Bookstores. Other national lists appear in the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.

Important: Have your book in print, not only as an e-book, preferably by a publisher – this can be your own company if professionally set-up.  Have your book through distributor channels (Ingram, Baker & Taylor) that are delivering to book sellers, reporting to the New York Times and USA TODAY, such as Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Costco and Target.

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Don’t forget what Heather MacLeans advices to authors: “If your wonderful book doesn’t make it to the NYT, remember that there are many other marketing tools that can help propel your title just as well: other newspaper lists, awards, editor’s recommendations, reviews, and word of mouth. If your book is good, people will find it and love it!”

Get also tips what you can actively do to make your book a success story in articles by Michael Hyatt and by James Altucher.

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