NY Times Bestseller Lists

This is interesting. The New York Times has changed their Fiction and Advice Bestseller Lists, Publishers Lunch reported today.

First off, they split their paperback fiction list in two. They now list mass-market fiction and paperback trade fiction. Plus, they’ve upped the number of listings from the top 15 when it was one list to 20 listings in each of the two fields.

In addition, they’ve upped the number of entries in the hardcover and paperback listings for advice/how-to/miscellaneous from five to ten.

Publishers Lunch said:

In all, there are now 110 official weekly adult NYT bestsellers, up from 70 in the previous presentation.

While other papers like the Los Angeles Times are cutting their book reviews, the New York Times is upping theirs. The reason? Revenues. Matthew Flamm at New York Business, says:

Meanwhile, ad revenue at the Times Book Review grew 10% last year, according to vice president of business development Todd Haskell, and is on track to grow another 10% this year. Book-related ad revenue online is up 131% year to date, Mr. Haskell says.

Flamm quoted an unnamed “top executive at one of the major houses” as saying:

It’s completely ad driven … People want to buy a position next to the lists.

This is good news for writers. Hopefully, this trend will catch on with other papers and instead of cutting book reviews, they’ll increase. Plus, more categories for the NY Times Bestsellers List mean more authors can achieve this benchmark.