Bestseller

A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on a list of top-sellers. In everyday usage, the term bestseller is not usually associated with a specified level of sales, or considered of superior academic value or literary quality, it simply implies great popularity, similar to blockbuster for films and chart-topper (or similar) in music (although, in film and music, these measures are generally related to specific sales figures and periods).

Amazon.com

The online book retailer, Amazon.com, has altered the perception of bestsellers, by providing an hourly-adjusted sales ranking for all of the titles in stock. By being apparently based strictly on auditable sales to the public, the Amazon rankings can be odds with bestseller lists compiled from more casual data, such as the New York Times list's survey of booksellers. This situation suggests a similar one in the area of popular music. In 1991, Billboard magazine switched its chart data from manual reports filed by stores, to automated cash register data collected by a service called SoundScan. The conversion saw a dramatic shake-up in chart content from one week to the next.

Related Topics:
Amazon.com - Survey - Bookseller - Popular music - 1991 - Billboard - Chart - Cash register - SoundScan

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Amazon's sales data has also generated new approaches to creating bestsellers. In 2004, Didier Sornette, a Professor of Geophysics and complex systems theorist at UCLA, using Amazon.com data, created a mathematical model for predicting bestseller potential based on early sales results. This information could be used to decide the potential for bestseller status, and to finetune advertising and publicity efforts.

Related Topics:
2004 - Didier Sornette - Professor - Geophysics - Complex system - UCLA - Advertising - Publicity

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