Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover

By: Kaya Yurtkuran

I have often mulled over the phrase don't judge a book by its cover' but I had never thought it would be most apt for the publishing industry where every other day you have a new best seller. And I say this because the term best seller is one of the most abused terminologies in the publishing field. Like many of you, I also went by what the name suggested - best seller - meaning a book that perhaps sold the most or a book that sold over a million copies or an equivalent number. But I was wrong. I was surprised to learn and perhaps now you are that there are NO set number of copies or any standard formula that defines which is a best seller book. All well known lists use different criterion to determine which are best seller books and which are not.

One theory that is gaining favor with the majority is any book that is high on current popularity charts may be called a best seller. However, I am a bit skeptical with that and not without reason. Who are the people who figure in the popularity charts? It is no secret that publishers use innovative marketing strategies, to influence agents, editors, retailers, and buyers to affect the popularity of their books on sale.

You'd also think that a book would have to be terrifically good reading to gain best seller status, at least that's what I thought. Well, I was wrong again because the novel I read from last week's best seller books list was a ho-hum read, and left me wondering if something was wrong with me!

I discovered that some lists usually have two divisions, fiction and non-fiction. In fact, I was quite taken aback with the following piece of information: it's been reported that The New York Times created their Children's Books section in 2001 to separate the Harry Potter series and clear out a space for other titles in the number 1, 2 and 3 spots on their Fiction list, which Harry Potter had been hogging for over a year!

The New York Times collects both wholesale and retail data, thus being perhaps more inclusive and closer to reality in terms of actual public popularity.

Then there is the Book Sense best seller books which determine elite status only from sales generated through independent book stores. I find this method of data collection a bit skewed considering that some people only shop for books in the larger chains, never going inside their neighborhood book shop.

Amazon, the giant online bookseller has yet another way of naming best seller books on their list. Amazon updates its list every hour, with data collected on sales from their own site. (How else could they update their list so quickly?)

In fact, many self-published authors use cleverly timed marketing campaigns where buyers receive something free from the author, like an e-book or a free trial version of software, for purchases made on a certain day in a certain time frame. All to achieve, if only for an hour, a coveted spot on Amazon's top 100 best sellers list.

So you can see there's many a way to construct a best seller books list. What's number one on one list may never see the light of day on another. So look over that book before snatching it off the shelf. See if what's inside is of interest to you and yes never judge the book by its cover!

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