Excellent video, Alyssa. I read years ago that publishers would often buy books in bulk to inflate those numbers and get certain titles on the List. Sounds like that was incorrect. Still, there are some mysteries there. It's like the Oscars, once you realize it's not what it seems, the awards lose their appeal. Thanks for the information!
The lists are rigged anyway, the algorithms are in charge and often they are random. There are loads of best sellers don't make it there and yet, some books that hasn't come out yet is already on the list. The thing is weird, and nobody is in charge of it, it is totally random, but the worst part of it is, you have to be a very well know celeb, or at least, sell 50,000 copies of your book per week to get a chance. That's what I heard anyway, not sure if it has chahnged
Thank you for sharing this video. As a 2023 debut author, I recognize that getting on the 'List' is a wonderful extra but not something I'm measuring my book's success with.
Ahhh. The cat is out of the bag, finally. ✨ I used to think about this since I’m a book lover and still a dream to write one and get published. 🤓 I had a gut feeling that the system is rigged and those authors who bought their way to the top would have the audacity to brag that they are on top of the NY times bestsellers list. 🤔 Thank you Alyssa. 💞
I've always assumed the "mysterious data" was a little curation. I'm not saying it's completely curated. It probably mostly isn't, but they might highlight books they just happen to like. 🤷♀
I'm curious if this would apply to authors who live in different countries. In my case from Australia. Very interesting video, thanks for the behind the scenes look.
I don't believe this is true. I've seen books speaking to both parties. Most people believe that the NYT leans toward the Democrats. However, i just saw a book on the list this month (October 2023) that is called "The Democrat Party Hates America" (written by a Fox News host which certainly leans toward being a Republican majority news station). If they followed the political ideal that most people associate with their organization, I doubt that book would have ever shown up.
"Reflects sales" is a very clever choice of words since it doesn't define what it terms "sales" and therefore it can include or exclude figures based on it's own perspective or preference.
I heard an author say in an interview that that list may or may not help a book get used for other product so as Janet Evanovich once told an audience- she never knew or understood why 1 book was picked over another for movie product when they all seemed equally popular.
F Newyork times bestseller list is Democrat party BS.. My book sold more then double their #1 for more then a month on Amazon. Then my book gets taken off market.. C'mon man. It's a scam!
One of the great mysteries of the universe... I've wondered how this works, so thanks for sharing! Something that comes to mind with regard to an author getting on to the NYT bestseller list is, even if the book drops off of the list after the first week, the author can forever claim the title of "New York Times Bestselling Author". Like when an actor wins an Academy Award, they can forever hold the title of "Academy Award-winning Actor"; or if they're nominated, but don't win, they can still claim "Academy Award-nominated Actor". Even if it was just once in their entire career.
I love this info. I've heard before about how the NYT lists aren't strictly based insoles numbers. Puts things into perspective, thanks. Side question for your next Wednesday AAA: How would one indicate special text in a manuscript? By that I mean excerpts of text a character is reading within the story, such as a letter, a text message, a newspaper clipping, quote from a book, etc.? In a formatted book, these are handled different ways such as in an alternative font, italicized, etc. But unsure how to appropriately indicate special text within a manuscript.
I would love to know how international sales are considered. If there are a lot of preorders from Amazon in Europe for example so those numbers factor in?
The "New York Times Best Selling Author" label means a lot. For me, that moniker would appear at the top of every subsequent book I published. (Not saying I am arrogant enough to expect the achievement, but I would use that label to the max.)
I knew that some authors pay their way into the list because I've seen authors online who barely have any audience and they always pretend to be a success by also buying "followers" because you can see the lack of interaction of these followers
I didn't care about that list. I would like to be traditionally published though. That to me, is a sign that professionals in the industry thought my work was worth investing in.
Wow so you need a publishing company to validate whether you’re a great writer or not? Do you know that you are signing the rights to your work and you will never own it or have a say in what they do with it? Owning your work in these days in age is much better and you keep your royalty.
@buffyshellmouthcollection anyone can publish anything, even junk. But to have professionals in the industry say "We think your book is so good we're willing to spend $100,000 of our own money on it." Well what better validation is there than that. Me saying I'm a great basketball player is meaningless, but if Shaq says it...
NYT has always been "fake news", so while I enjoy a lot of your content, I've always cringed when you referred to their best seller list a lot of the times as some sort of standard bearer for success.
