Every single
bestseller list either measures a limited number of sales in a few
places, or far worse, it's a curated list and a small group of people
are deciding what to put on their list. And they're picking books
based on what they think are important books, not based on what is
actually selling.
When questioned
about the practice of deciding what books are appropriate to get
bestseller status, an old school newspaper editor said they did not
want to promote books that were, “sewer-written by dirty-fingered
authors for dirty-minded readers.” Yes, that’s a real quote.
You know what
authors he was talking about? Henry Miller and Harold Robbins, now
widely considered titans of modern literature. But that attitude is
still prevalent today, and still infects how most editors think about
books.
The most important
bestseller list is The New York Times bestseller list, and they are
the worst culprit at this curated elitism. They readily admit that
their list is only reflective of books that are selling at a certain
number of bookstores and online retailers around the country -- but
not an actual bestseller list. You know why they have to admit this
publicly? They were sued about it.
For most of the 20th
century, they pretended to use a scientific method to count book
sales and claimed their list was authoritative and accurate. And then
William Blatty wrote a novel called The Exorcist -- which has sold 10
million copies and is a famous movie. It sold more than enough copies
to be high on the bestseller list for a long time, but initially, it
did not appear. He rightly claimed that The New York Times was
intentionally excluding it for editorial reasons -- the book was
considered very controversial at the time -- and claimed that their
decision was costing him millions of dollars in sales.
He lost the case.
Why? Because The New York Times defense was that “the list did not
purport to be an objective compilation of information but instead was
an editorial product.” They won the case in multiple rulings all
the way up to the Supreme Court, based on the argument that the list
is not supposed to accurate, but reflects their judgment.
It is a valid legal
argument, but it also means The New York Times admitted their
bestseller list is just a popularity contest, and they select who
they will and won't put in the "cool kids" club. It's like
high school all over again.