Making a book to the New York Times bestseller rejoices an author to the highest level. It makes the moment memorable for him, and the book memorable for all. It gives the author broader industry recognition, establishes him as a major thought leader, smoothens out his future contracts with established printing houses, and most importantly boosts the sales making it a deal worth million dollars. So, what makes a book land in the New York Times bestseller list?
Albert-László Barabási, a Network Scientist and his colleagues at the Northeastern University analysed 4,500 NY Times bestsellers to decode the sales trend and what it takes to make the list. After studying the sales data, they found that most of the copies were sold within the first few weeks of a book’s release, and after ten weeks, it dropped dramatically. Some books may have lots of copies sold but didn’t make it to the list just because they don’t follow this sales pattern or have less number of copies sold in the initial week. A similar pattern is followed across all genres but the number of copies an author needs to sell to make the list varies by the season. A season with festivals like December requires more than 10,000 copies to be sold, while in February, it just takes 3,000 copies.
Different categories such as fiction and non-fiction, hardcover, paperback, ebooks, audiobooks, and various other book genres can be found in the NY Times bestseller list. The fiction bestseller list is often dominated by the same authors while in non-fiction, very few authors are repeated except those who write the book in a series. The list is often dictated by few genres like in fiction, it is usually suspense and thrillers and in non-fiction, autobiography or memoir. While there is a gender balance in authors of fiction, there are very few female authors in non-fiction, the rationale behind which still lies unexplained.
These trends can be a great help for a budding author. So, do keep in mind these patterns before writing your next book.
Kriti Vishwakarma