Ebooks Finally Included On the NYT BestSeller List 32
destinyland writes "The New York Times' site just published their first best-seller list which includes ebooks. 'To give the fullest and most accurate possible snapshot of what books are being read at a given moment you have to include as many different formats as possible,' a book editor explained in November, 'and e-books have really grown, there's no question about it.' Interestingly, the rankings of the top 7 best-selling ebooks are unchanged if you also include their print sales."
A little behind the times (Score:1)
Billboard started including E-music sales and youtube listens in the early 2000s. Nielsen started including online TV views as part of their 7-day viewing stats in 2007. I guess New York Times is just more conservative and slower to change?
Re: (Score:2)
Billboard started including E-music sales and youtube listens in the early 2000s. Nielsen started including online TV views as part of their 7-day viewing stats in 2007. I guess New York Times is just more conservative and slower to change?
I don't think they saw it in their interest to change. How much advertising were companies like Amazon buying in the NYT? When you have a company that has been trying to continue monetizing it's old dead trees and oil product you really can't expect them to send people to the internet... for anything. I have not picked one up for many years, but I have to think the best sellers list has book store or book ads in the same area of the paper. It would be interesting to see if they now have ads for e-book sites
Interesting?? (Score:4, Insightful)
So people who use ebooks are normal people just like you and me. Who'd have thunk?
Re:Interesting?? (Score:5, Interesting)
So people who use ebooks are normal people just like you and me. Who'd have thunk?
Not at all. Normal people don't read. If you read dead-tree books or ebooks, you are ipso facto not normal.
Similarly if you read and respond to /. articles. However, if you reply without reading them, you just might be normal.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Interesting?? (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the issues with the best sellers lists is that it's subject to manipulation, nobody really knows how many copies of a given book are out there at any given times. Ebooks for the portion they make up, should be a lot more accurate in that respect.
Re: (Score:2)
Hmmm, that's going to be harder for them to maintain, since both Barnes and Noble [barnesandnoble.com] and Amazon [amazon.com] have self publishing portals, (follow the links for how those work) and they account for a huge percentage of sales of both Print and ebooks in the US.
Sooner or later someone is bound to release something via those electronic self publish routes which rockets to the top of sales. Will they just pretend it didn't happen?
Or is it that ebook sales WITHOUT dead tree books would never amount to a best seller?
(TFA wander
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
With specific regard to e-books, we're a little baffled as to why the NYT would create an eBook list and a "combined" list at once.
Ask your wife (or her agent) about the release dates for new books in print vs e-format.
The releases are usually staggered so that e-books don't cannibalize the sales of the hardback.
When you look at it in that light, it's easy to see that what's popular in print and online are not always going to be 100% the same.
Books Read? (Score:5, Insightful)
'To give the fullest and most accurate possible snapshot of what books are being read at a given moment you have to include as many different formats as possible,'
Methinks included also should be books being read without being 'sold', if the aim is indeed to reflect 'books read', and not 'books sold'.
Harry Potter... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yep, here it is:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E0DD1730F937A15755C0A9669C8B63
Wouldn't it make more sense? (Score:4, Informative)
Wouldn't it make more sense to only use the combined figures? If the goal of the best seller list is to show what people are purchasing (buying a book doesn't mean it's actually being read), then why still have separate print and non-print lists?
Re: (Score:2)
Wouldn't it make more sense to only use the combined figures? If the goal of the best seller list is to show what people are purchasing (buying a book doesn't mean it's actually being read), then why still have separate print and non-print lists?
When a new book is released, there is usually a delay of anywhere from weeks to months before the e-book is offered for sale.
It makes sense to have separate listings for hard/softback and e-books because they don't always hit the market at the same time.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
They do have seperate lists for hardback and paperback.
Re: (Score:2)
True, but that is because not all paperback books are available in hardback and vice-versa.
You could always get my book on the list.... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Stieg Larsson is sadly missed, but... (Score:2)
From TFA:
#2 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson
#3 THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by Stieg Larsson
#4 THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, by Stieg Larsson
You can see all three movies (Swedish w/English subtitles) on Netflix Watch Instantly (streaming). Get a one month Netflix subscription ($8 -- streaming only, no DVDs) and watch all three movies. The books are terrific and the movies are also very well done. For the best movie experience, I suggest you read the book then watch the corresponding movie. Barnes and Noble was selling the Nook e-book versions for around $5 each. Read/watch them in the order shown above (as the titles indicate, it's
Re: (Score:2)
I'm really surprised that those books are still dominating the list. Don't get me wrong, I read them all (on the Kindle - for the sake of relevance to TFA), and absolutely loved every word, and would recommend them to anyone. But they've been out for years. It's amazing that they're still on top of a weekly best-seller list.
Re: (Score:2)
Odd, I found them pretty seriously overrated. Maybe it's just the English translations, but I thought the language wavered between dull and corny throughout. The plots and characters seemed fairly run-of-the-mill, at least as far as this genre of thrillers goes (which, admittedly, is not really my usual cuppa). I chalk up their popularity to the same reasons Dan Brown is popular -- he's accessible and he can put together a twisty plot. (And no offense, but the fact that you see the books on the bestseller l
interesting?? (Score:1)
Why wouldn't you? (Score:2)
I suppose you could make a separate list, but it sure seems like books are being sold, in one format or the other, those sales should be included in the counts for books sold.
Look at Music iTunes is far and away the largest retailer of music in terms of amount of music sold. I wouldn't say the iTunes bestselling list is worthless that's for sure.
I'd like . . . (Score:1)