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How many books must you sell in a week to be on the New York Times best seller list?

Public Comments

1. at least 5
2. You'll get a clue by looking at some of the covers of old bestsellers. 11 million sold, 8 million sold.... 6 months on the NYT Bestseller list. Typically the books that make the NYT Bestseller list come from major publishers only. Those books are approved by the marketing department for a big push (lots of publicity, author appearances, huge print runs) and make up approximately 2% of all the books that publisher brings out. Very few new authors ever get that kind of backing. You'll be lucky to get an advance from most publishers these days.
3. Sales of 50,000 books through bookstores over a period of weeks could do it. It is Bookstores that give the Times the information it needs to compile its list. In turn, the Times lets the bookstores use the bestseller list as a marketing tools.