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How many copies does a book have to sell in order to count as a bestseller?

So many books are labeled "#1 on the New York Times Bestsellers List" that I wonder if the tag confers any real merit upon the book in question at all.

Public Comments

1. It must be more than 10000 copies in the first month or so TW K
2. I don't think it means a thing anymore to be on the NY Bestsellers list. Just another marketing gimmick. I have a good use for that list however and it is this. Never, never, never buy a book on that list........LOL If u feel u just gotta give some over-the-hill, once favorite author of yours, another read wait for it to hit that other list, "Most common books found in the yard sale's FREE box".
3. I couldn't find an estimate for number of book sales in the U.S. that would result in NYT Bestseller status, but according to Wikipedia, sales of 4,000 to 25,000 a week (depending on category and list) could make a bestseller in the U.K., and sales of about 5,000 copies a week would do it in Canada. The U.S. is a bigger market, but I think a higher percentage of people read in Canada and the U.K. than in the U.S., so the figures might me similar for making the lists in the U.S. And, of course, there are many different lists. It's easier to get onto a specialty bestseller list (the Locus list of science fiction novels, say) than on the NYT. Some 200,000 books are published each year in the U.S., and less than 1% are bestsellers of any kind. Reaching #1 on the NYT list does indicate that for at least one week, that particular book was hot.