Allison, your questions are good ones. I have wondered about this myself. I think the bestseller timing is a little misleading. A lady at our local bookstore told me that the list that comes out for this week is actually based on data from last week, so they do know what sold well. It's sort of like Billboard Magazine's Top 40 shows. This week's show is based on last week's music sales. If you listen to the blurb at the end of each show, the announcer tells you which week they used for their data. He does this in a rapid voice mixed in among the list of credits, so it's not obvious. The lady at the bookstore also told me that the New York Times list only tracks data from certain publishers and that books by smaller publishers might not be represented in this list. Still, it's a fun list to explore to see what people are buying from major publishers.
Monica Willyard Allison Hilliker wrote:
Hi Booksharians, maybe this is an obvious question, but how do the publishers know what's going to be on the best seller list so early in the month?
