What Keeps Self-Published Books Off the New York Times Best-Seller Lists?

In this episode, Lauren & Matt discuss the New York Times Best Seller lists. Learn how the lists are decided, what disqualifies a book from being a potential NYT Best-Seller, and why self-published authors rarely make the cut.  


Dive Deeper

💡 The New York Times | About the Best Sellers
💡 Novlr | The New York Times Bestseller Lists Explained
💡 Wikipedia | The New York Times Best-Seller List
💡 Jane Friedman | Self-Published Bestseller Lists

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [4:29] “What I mean when I say it doesn't matter is that you can still achieve incredible success as a self-published author without having your name on the New York Times best-seller list.” 

🎙️ [12:15] “They were getting sued for not including a specific title on the list despite the sales. And the argument that they made was that it is not exclusively based on straight up math and sales numbers, but is more of an editorial product that is influenced by sales numbers, but also influenced by other things.”

🎙️ [34:35] “I'm going to make Matt's blood boil a little bit because I'm going to say that I think that for self-published authors… hitting the top of the Amazon charts is probably more important for your sales and discoverability than hit the New York Times list would be."

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