It would be simple enough to answer that a bestseller is an author selling a lot of books, but that wouldn’t be complete. Plenty of authors want to write a bestseller. Many of them don’t consider how much they can do themselves to land on a list, or wear a badge in a listing.
It’s a relative thing. A bestseller status compares a book’s sales to the other 24, or 49, or 149 books on the list. (USA Today’s list places 300 books on lists, divided into fiction and nonfiction.) Many books are bestselling, but getting onto a list takes note of the biggest of the bestsellers at the time.
It’s a temporary thing. At this year’s Novel Marketing Conference I heard a phrase the describes bestseller status very well. “God’s mercies are fresh every day,” said the leader of the conference Thomas Umstattd Jr. Each week, the list changes. Whatever your book did on the last list counts for nothing to make it onto the next list.
It’s a business thing. Selling enough books to make it into a list takes many people. The readers, of course, but also the promotion, discovery, and sales experts. Yes, the book needs to be well-written, telling a story or covering a subject people care about. After your last revision, though, the selling is up to your industrial literary complex, traditional or your own. Bookstores feed stock (your books) back and forth between a publisher and shelves. Books that were purchased and landed you onto a list can be returned, in bulk, but they still count as sales — for the list.
It’s an elite thing, at times. Even though the relative, temporary, and business things are all true, making a bestseller is still a valid goal. Unless you’re running a publishing enterprise that produces and promotes books, though, there’s not many things an author can do to help a new book sell. Except sit for blog interviews and podcasts. And write on blogs. You’ll also appear at conferences, libraries and bookstores, talking about your book. You snag endorsements. Publishers work with you on those things, in exchange for owning the rights to your book.
Your book can make it onto a bestseller list without the biggest of publishers. Jane Friedman, who publishes an industry newsletter now called The Bottom Line, curates a set of lists that look beyond the Times and USA Today lists. She also breaks her lists of 50 books each into Hidden Gems, Self-Published Ebooks, and Self-Published Print Books.
Books published traditionally usually have initial printings of 2,500 copies or more to get onto a list. It can be much more, and a printing can be announced before the presses roll to impress book buyers. Sales are reported, but not audited. Print on demand books can sell well, but landing on bestseller lists takes the efforts of publishing connected with retailers. Bookstores, yes, but also online retailers. We’re talking ads and other investments.
