Why does this post that is to shed light on how the best seller lists work not answer an obvious question? Why do you not include the number of books sold?
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In the world of biblical studies I've seen books appearing on the NYT best sellers list before they are even available to the public. Plus you are probably aware that there have been companies that will guarantee an author of making the NYT best sellers list. It's expensive and again much of this falls into the category of the world of religious studies which raises questions of how this is being carried out. One book in particular, ended up on the Times Best sellers list before it was available to the public, next week when the book became available, it suddenly disappeared from the list.
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How few copies of a book can be sold in a given week and still put the book on a list? Tens? Hundreds? Thousands? How does NYT manage reports from "tens of thousands" of booksellers?
No mention of poetry. Shameful in a time when poetry is more vibrant and necessary than ever and seeing a resurgence as poets respond and resist the despotic nature of our nation's renewed intolerance.
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Color me puzzled. Tens of thousands of retailers? Does that mean you count Target, Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble and other multi-location retailers by their locations? Each of those retailers should count once, like Amazon and other online-only retailers.
Or is it possible that, in 2018, there are tens of thousands of booksellers in the US aside from the ten to twenty multi-location retailers?
Seems hard to believe.
Could you please clarify this?
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