Bought. Otherwise how do you explain:
"Among the categories not actively tracked at this time are: perennial sellers, required classroom reading, textbooks, reference and test preparation guides, journals, workbooks, calorie counters, shopping guides, comics, crossword puzzles and self-published books."
http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/overview.html
Utter BS. They know how well the other books in Amazon's best seller list are selling (from publisher inputs). So estimating sales would be easy. the only reason to exclude is that indie authors do not buy NT Times ad space. Grrr...
If it wasn't for the above, I could accept:
"E-books available exclusively from a single vendor will be tracked at a future date."
Read the small print. The NY Times Ebook best seller list is corporate bull. Spoon feeding the public false information. This list is intentionally trying to make the AAP publishers look better.
Grrrr...
Got Popcorn?
Neil
I am guessing that the NYT bestseller list was invented as a marketing tool by the big publishers in the first place.
ReplyDeleteJust like any disruptive technology, those protecting the status quo will try to ignore it, then criticize it and eventually they will have to accept it.
I agree with your sentiment. Grrrr...
While I agree this is aggravating, it isn't much of a surprise. The current publishing model is based on the control of distribution, and this is really the only thing that large, well-financed publishers have that smaller publishers and self-publishers do not. So it is to be expected that they will do anything they can to maintain that advantage, including trying to control the information about books that is made available to prospective readers. And for this, ensuring that media outlets like the New York Times only promote their books at the expense of all others is a logical choice.
ReplyDeleteThey are counting on people to be stupid and do as they're told, in other words, while they make large profits off of them. And this can work for a while, but as information moves more freely on things like the internet (and before that, the printing press), the situation changes. Just ask Mr. Mubarak about that.
Tuppshar,
ReplyDeleteNot much of a surprise is true and sad.
I just want the information to move freely that list is bunk.
Neil