In this video about how the vaunted New York Times Bestseller List is created, you may learn that part of the process is controlled by publishers, who indicate which books they deem worthy of “keeping an eye on.” I found that surprising, as well as the fact that Wal-Mart sales aren’t included.
Of course, Amazon is busy creating alternatives, having recently announced that weekly Nielsen BookScan data will be available in Amazon’s Author Central service. It will include an interactive map of sales data for print books.
Happy Friday!
