When browsing for books at the public library, it’s not uncommon for me to wander into the Teens Fiction Novels section and pick up a book that’s marked with New York Times Bestseller at the top of the front cover. Several years of reading these “bestseller” books later, I only recently came to wonder: what does this label exactly mean?
Many sources simply say that a book requires 9,000 copies to be sold in order to be considered a NYT Bestseller in the first week of release. This seems pretty straightforward, but the ranking system behind the scenes has received heavy critique and sparked great controversy.
There are two said methods to get onto the list:
1. Make individual sales or,
2. Buy your way onto the list
The first method is the way most authors would think to go about this. The deliberate use of the term “individual” sales implies that books sold in bulk are not counted by NYT. So if a certain order of 1,500 copies of a book is made by a company, that sale is not considered. At this stage, the process of making it onto this bestseller list seems uncomplicated but there are a few other unwritten requirements here. At least 10,000 pre-orders of a book should be made; otherwise there’s an unlikely chance of becoming a NYT Bestseller. The why’s of that statement, I’m not too clear on but it most likely shows accounts of heavy marketing and therefore foreseen popularity. Another factor is that ebooks are not counted because they technically aren’t “physical books”. On top of all of that, there are only a few select stores across the US that NYT will count sales from.
Onto the second method. Straight away, you’re probably rethinking the competency of those who’ve called themselves a NYT Bestselling author. A whole level of ethicality comes into view but mind you, buying your way onto the list can be just as difficult as the first method. You need to consider that buying enough copies to make the list can cost upwards of $200,000 and these still have to be individual purchases! An author may hire people to purchase all of the author’s books in a store one at a time.
Either way, these ways still cannot guarantee you a spot on that bestseller list. NYT gets the final say on the rankings and of course, there are plenty of biases. For example, if the author works for the NYT, there’s a higher chance of their book being ranked higher and staying on the list longer. This is only one example, which means that even if a book meets all the criteria for being a NYT bestseller, several other factors can block a book from becoming a NYT bestseller.
We’ve established that getting onto this prestigious list is hard enough, but there’s a major caveat to having that label: once a book becomes a NYT bestseller, it becomes the property of the NYT. Following up, the NYT will not cover marketing so an author will lose a huge percent of their future profits off their book, and will be responsible for advertising it.
All things considered, why aim for this title? It seems incredibly difficult to get and seems to have minimal benefits, so is it worth your time? To a professional writer, being known as a New York Times Bestseller author means better future publisher deals, and after this recognition, individual sales on future books may get you a much faster profit.
Knowing all of this, I give all my respects to the authors who have gotten their books to be listed as a bestseller by the New York Times. The next time you pick up a New York Times Bestseller, think about all the decisions that author had to make to get their book the way as you see it.