Do bestseller lists really matter?

An announcement from Publishers Weekly about the Wall Street Journal dropping its bestseller lists should make authors reconsider their infatuation with claiming “bestseller” status for their books.

According to the Nov. 7, 2023 online edition of Publishers Weekly:

The Wall Street Journal has stopped running its weekly bestseller lists. The final lists were carried in the past weekend’s editions. The paper ran a total of six fiction and nonfiction lists, as well as a hardcover business list. All were powered by Circana BookScan.

Paul Gigot, editorial page editor at the WSJ, said that the company’s contract with Circana expired, “and we are not renewing it.” He added that all other aspects of the paper’s book coverage will “continue as usual.”

What does this mean for most authors?

In my opinion, nothing.

Years ago, one of the books I ghostwrote made the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. I watched the behind-the-scenes manipulation the named author’s marketing team did to make that happen. They sent out thousands of emails asking people to buy the book on a specific day and offered rewards for those who did (“send us a copy of your receipt and we’ll send you a bonus”). And my client bought thousands of copies of the book through a company that had a way of getting those author purchases reported as regular retail sales.

When it was done, the publisher was able to put “Wall Street Journal bestseller” on the cover and my client added “bestselling author” to his bio.

I’m not sure what good it did, other than stroke his ego. Sales flatlined after that initial push.

The reality is that most authors, especially those who are indie published, don’t stand a chance of hitting any of the big bestseller lists.

This has driven a lot of authors to focus on trying to secure a bestseller status on Amazon—which is absolutely meaningless. And Amazon is taking steps to stop authors from gaming their system.

A few years ago, one of the books in my “My Book About” series (a low-content novelty series of books) ranked number one in Amazon’s Hot New Releases.

To do that, it sold five copies, and I bought three of them. (I needed those copies quickly so I bought them at retail instead of waiting for author copies, which take longer to produce.)

What's really important?

It’s important for your book to come out of the gate with strong sales on Amazon. Getting those early sales and reviews are critical to having Amazon’s algorithms recognize that your book should be boosted in their system. And you might hit Amazon bestseller status for an hour or two.

But don’t brag about being an Amazon bestselling author to anyone who knows anything about the publishing business. They know it doesn’t mean anything.

Back to the issue of bestseller lists in general: Just because your book never makes a bestseller list doesn’t mean it isn’t a great book. And just because a book is on a bestseller list doesn’t mean it’s any good.

Regardless of the publishing path you choose (self-publish, pay-to-publish, or traditional), your goal shouldn’t be to get on a bestseller list, it should be to craft a quality book that is professionally designed and produced. With that, you can put together a marketing plan for your book that will result in steady, long-term sales and loyal readers.