The Rise of BookScan

Posted on November 8, 2004

The Washington Post has an interesting article about bestseller lists and how they are compiled by the various publications. Many major publications post bestseller lists, but few reveal the inner workings of how these lists are compiled.

BookScan is becoming more accurate over time; it now reports around 70% of actual book sales from major retailers such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. But the BookScan results are not free and are mostly used by the book publishing industry right now.

In any event, it seems unlikely that even if BookScan becomes free to the public, that the New York Times bestseller lists will become obselete. There is a human, editorial element in major bestseller lists and we think that's a plus.