Does the banner on a new book, "New York Times Best Seller" mean anything at all any more?

I don’t read best sellers unless they are recommended from Amazon or radio or television. I usually stick to the same authors or subjects.

Unfortunately, all it means is just that. Its a best seller. It has sold a lot.

You CAN still find a lot of good books ON the NYT Best Seller list. Some of the hard-back books that are relevant with the times you will never regret buying. I used to work in the Rare Books and Archives (Special Collections) division of the University of Memphis library—best job I ever had. There are a lot of ‘forgotten’ classics that were once best sellers in their times.

Regrettably, the New York Times best sellers—although relevant to pop culture usually if not a TRUE future classic, is often just based on sales.

Because of Winn Dixie and Marley and Me are two dog stories that were on the NYT Best Seller list. Both excellent stories about a bond between humans and dogs. Both have strong literary value and sense of place, and other qualities that you know they will be classics. Both sold well and eventually were made into movies. Other things sell well and will be made into movies and are Best Sellers but are just plain kitschy or stupid

You knew all that. I guess I’m posting because I agree with you.

Now that the book publishing industry is more dominated than ever by companies focused on efficient book sales in places like supermarkets rather than quality writing, I think “best-seller” is less interesting than ever.

“Best seller” has always referred to sales and sales alone. Danielle Steele was constantly on the NYT best seller list. Fifty Shades of Grey (Twilight fan fiction, yuck) made the NYT bestseller list. If you want well-written books, read the blurbs. National Book Award winners and finalists are a pretty fair bet. Publishers Weekly and Booklist starred reviews are good indicators as well.

@Dutchess_III As you know there are many good books about dogs that DO make the NYT Best Seller list and usually say a lot about a time and place that are the setting—the original Lassie Come Home, Old Yeller, Sounder, My Dog Skip, the Dog that Rescued Me Because of Winn Dixie, Marley and Me—to name a few.. far from being in the background, they make a social statement about the setting and times—without sermonizing they depict a lot. Because many of us relate well to dogs, we feel more like we were there. And besides that, the human / dog bond often teaches us the reader, or the characters of the novel or novella, a great deal about ourselves. Dog books that make best seller lists seldom go wrong—sorry that yours turned out to be just another smut novel.

@Yellowdog That was informative. Thanks. And yes. It was a bit smutty and not even realistic.

Glad to know it wasn’t my imagination. It’s kind of depressing, this dumbing down of America though, if those kinds of insipid books are selling a lot.

Many dog novels claim to be marketed to children but are really more property ‘coming of age’ books, Just be sure you read about the book before ordering. “Because of Winn Dixie” was marketed for preteens and early teens, but actually does deal with race relations in the deep south, coming of age, and the deep south setting. Its also an entertaining and often funny—funny because its so realistic. My Dog Skip is kind of the same in that regard. Just know what you are buying.

In my country there is a series of children’s fiction that manages to enter the Best Seller list every time a new issue hits the bookstore. It would be a wonderful story that teaches kids all the valuable lessons of life that kids could use for the rest of their life right?

First off, the characters are the 12 “astrological” signs that have been stereotyped to death, that’s some really bad omen here. The stories are incredibly stupid. They are about a bunch of stupid kids causing themselves troubles that could be avoided in the first place, and 99℅ of the plots are about someone crushing someone else. The series does try to teach children something, but it’s more like “A insults B with sarcasms and really intends to hurt B. B gets angry and A and everyone else preach that there should be more humor in life. Everyone lives happily ever after”. It gets to the point where the series promotes bad behavior like emotional abuse, bullying, peer pressure, gossiping… The morals are just there to make the series seems more intellectual and deep than it actually is.

What’s worse, the Facebook page of the authors is pure cancer. The series started off pretty mediocre, but then the authors saw that kids are stupid enough to go after anything colorful and edgy, so they bombarded the page with hints of crushes and pretended to be 13-year-olds in the comments to get closer to the kids and boost the sale. That’s the most disgusting marketing ploy I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

So yeah, it isn’t something unique to America, and the Best Seller list can be ridged sometimes.

Meh. I’m kind of an elitist when it comes to what I read, so I view the best seller list as often full of insipid crowd-pleasing fluff that has no literary merit. I get most of my ideas of what to read from criticism and reviews, friends’ recommendations, and awards like Pulitzer and Booker. :)

Typically means it is a book I won’t read now. In the old days it meant something. Now, the NYT is too political and leans way too far left for my liking. What they consider a great book these days is tripe.

You do realize it is based on sales and not what they would like you to read?

https://i.imgur.com/qojCX3I.png

Note the first two are Fox News personalities. Also note that you only need to sell about 10,000 books to get on the list. With a MSRP of 20 bucks you too can be on the list for around 200K. A lot of times politicians and news personalities will just buy a bunch and give them out.

There are supposed to be methods in place to prevent that but they don’t work. I have a friend that works at a small bookstore and people would call up going, “I want all your copies of X book”. I will pay for them but I don’t want to pay for shipping so you can just do whatever with them. Just report them as sold.

So the list is pretty much entirely gamed unless it is something like Harry Potter.

Lets be clear on one thing, @johnpowell , since you brought it up.

The Russia Hoax – The Illicit scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump by Gregg Jarrett

Liars, Leakers, and Liberals by Judge Jeanine Pirro

and The Case against Impeaching Trump by Alan Dershowitz

—are all VERY HIGH on the NYT Best Seller list, as have been at least half a dozen other books this year in their genre. Most of them have been pre-ordered / sold out for months before their release, and outline the greatest government conspiracy in U.S. history. It is unraveling right before your eyes. Many Americans are VERY concerned about this topic, In six months, it will be impossible even for YOU to deny it. It might be beneficial for you to read some of these books and see what the other half recognizing, after all, the hard left is still in denial.

Fox News is Number Two as the most trusted news source, right between NPR and the BBC (#8). CNN is near the bottom at #9. Sinclair is AT the bottom as #10.

So, I DON’T think these books are on the Best Seller list because someone bought 10,000 of them just to get on the list,

@Yellowdog: you have it backwards. Sales of titles like these get bumped up because they are already hyped by false sales numbers. People will buy solely based on perceived popularity (your political rant notwithstanding).

I have a decade in the general book selling business, it has always been this way. The internet and social media have increased this phenomenon exponentially. The numbers don’t cover the massive returns to the distributors. We used to have enormous return rates of those giant displays you would see in the big chains.

For me, yes. Along with other reputable book review organizations and comments from famous writers it has helped me to choose quality books in bookstore.

“New York Times Best Seller” does not indicate that the content will satisfy people from all demography with different taste and interests. It is more important to choose based on your favorite genre first, and then you could consider the reviewers’ approval.

There does seem to be, among some participants on this thread, a confusion between “best seller” and “well reviewed”.
The two are not even remotely comparable.

So, I DON’T think these books are on the Best Seller list because someone bought 10,000 of them just to get on the list,

Books on the NY Times list with a dagger symbol (†) are there because of bulk sales. The 2nd book in John Powell’s picture, by Jeanine Piro, has a dagger.