The Wall Street Journal to Add Ebook Bestseller Lists Using Neilson BookScan

Posted on October 28, 2011

The Wall Street Journal will now include ebooks in its bestseller lists. The WSJ will use data from Neilson BookScan to add digital sales. The new bestseller lists will debut tomorrow as part of WSJ Weekend.

Nielsen BookScan has created genre charts for The Wall Street Journal since 2009, including fiction, nonfiction, business and a variety of other genre spotlight charts for the newspaper. Neilson says that all major ebook retailers will contribute data for four new charts, including self-published digital releases, children's books and perennials. These charts will combine print and ebook charts for fiction and nonfiction. There will also be charts that show bestelling ebook-only sales for books priced at 99 cents and above. So, in a nutshell: There are going to be a lot of new bestseller lists.

Jonathan Stolper, Vice President & General Manager, Nielsen BookScan said in a statement, "As consumers and booksellers continue to embrace the potential of e-books, we are very happy to be working with The Wall Street Journal to produce the most accurate best-seller lists available. These new charts uniquely reflect what people are really buying and reading and will most definitely advance the industry's understanding of ebook best sellers."