#1 on NYT best seller list

[maynard]

How does one get a book to be #1 on the NYT list when the book is bought in bulk and then given away on the internet? Aren't there rules for that?

[eleny]

1. Because they own the country now

[Bozita]

2. The NYT indicates bulk buys with a crosslike symbol

Sorry, I don't know how to reproduce it from my keyboard.

[Igel]

7. That's what their site says, and no books have a dagger

(on the website they substitute +) or a * (indicating virtual tie).

I wonder if they mark them consistently.

[Dead_Parrot]

8. Is it a †?

I don't read the NYT, but it sounds like it. Use
"&dagger" to put it on DU in html, or alt+0134
on windoze...

[MnFats]

3. Isn't it supposed to get an asterisk or something like that?

to signify somebody, like Richard Mellon Scaife, has minions around the country buying truckloads to boost sales figures?
Must be nice for Ann....she can relax, turn out crap and be secure in the knowledge that her rich handlers will make her tripe a best-seller.

[juajen]

10. That's her payoff

Please stop giving her free publicity on DU.

[Mythsaje]

4. It's actually a fairly regular practice

for the big houses to buy up and destroy copies to increase "sales" figures to drive a book up the lists.

[pitohui]

5. it's by number of books sold

it is not by number of books sold to individual persons

it is not by number of books actually read

yes, it is cheating to buy the books in bulk yourself or to have a powerful patron do so because the book is not worthy of being read, but i'm not sure how you could put a stop to the practice

[LA lady]

6. Bulk is only on Publisher's Weekly Best Seller's list

Actually, the majority of the Best seller lists are compiled from RETAIL book store sales. Bulk sales are made directly from the Publisher and that's why Publisher's Weekly best seller list varies from the others. I worked for Borders for years and we used to laugh at how Barnes and Nobles Best Seller's list could be so different from ours.

USA Today's list is based on a computer analysis of retail book sales nationwide during the last week. Included are more than 1 million volumes from approximately 3,000 large-inventory, diverse-content bookstores.

USA Today calculates a list of approximately 250 best-selling books. The first 10 are listed.

Reporting stores include: Doubleday Book Shops, Hungry Mind Bookstore (St. Paul), Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Lexington, Cincinnati), Ingram Book Co. (reporting retail sales for independent bookstores including Hawley Cooke Booksellers, Louisville, and a sampling of Little Professor Book Centers), Lauriat's and Royal Discount Book Stores, Scribners Bookstores, Tattered Cover Book Store (Denver), Waldenbooks, Waterstone's (Boston), B. Dalton Bookseller, Barnes & Noble Inc, Books-A-Million and Bookland, Books & Co. (Dayton), Borders Books & Music, Brentano's, Crown Books, Davis Kidd Booksellers (Tennessee).

The Wall Street Journal's list reflects nationwide sales of hardcover books during the week ended last Saturday at more than 2,500 B. Dalton, Barnes & Noble, Bookland, Books-a-Million, Books & Co., Bookstar, Bookstop, Borders, Brentano's, Coles, Coopersmith, Crown, Doubleday, Scribners, Super Crown and Waldenbooks stores, as well as sales from online retailers barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.
http://www.cnn.com/books/bestsellers/

[eviltwin2525]

9. join the conspiracy

from now on, I'm only referring to "her" as "Ann-Thrax Coulter." It's far more accurate. (My apologies to anthrax germs everywhere.)

[rusty charly]

11. actually, the full name is: mAnnthrax Coultergeist

[rusty charly]

12. CORRECTION: Ann Coulter's Sale Figures

"In an e-mail to the Voice today, Crown Forum publishing V.P. Tina Constable took umbrage with a Power Plays item about Crown author Ann Coulter. The item questioned whether the sales figures for Coulter's latest book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, were being plumped through a campaign of giveaways by conservative groups."

-snip-

"Nielsen BookScan does not track sales made through NewsMax, Human Events, and the Conservative Book Club. Rather, it tracks retail sales from national, regional, and online chains such as Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon, etc., as well as independent sellers and some mass retailers such as Target and Cosco. A spokesperson from Nielsen BookScan said its data could include bulk orders received from the stores it tracks. However, it is more likely that groups offering free or discount books would buy them wholesale from a distributor. On Friday afternoon, I could not reach anyone from NewsMax, Human Events, or CBC to clarify where they received their copies of Godless."


http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002686.php