By Team Azuni
Becoming a New York Times best-selling author is the dream of many aspiring authors. But what criteria do books need to meet in order to hit the coveted NYT Bestseller list? In this blog post, we’ll dive into the requirements for becoming a best-selling author and explore how you can increase your chances of making it on the list.
The Criteria for Making the List
To even be considered for the NY Times Bestsellers list, books must first meet certain criteria. The book must be sold by a select group of retailers that report their sales data to The New York Times. This includes big box stores like Barnes & Noble, online retailers like Amazon, independent bookstores, and specialty stores that focus on specific topics such as cookbooks or children’s literature. For nonfiction books, major book clubs such as Book-of-the-Month Club will also count towards meeting the criteria.
Once these criteria are met, The New York Times then compiles sales data from these retailers and uses it to create its weekly lists—not just its overall Best Sellers list but also its lists broken down by category such as Fiction or Nonfiction. To make it onto one of these lists, books must sell significantly more copies than their competitors within their category in a given week. It’s important to note that while total sales figures are taken into account when compiling the list, they aren’t necessarily the deciding factor; quality is also an important consideration when determining which books make it onto the list.
How You Can Increase Your Chances
So what can you do to increase your chances of making it onto The New York Times Best Sellers list? One way is to focus on pre-sales prior to your book’s release date. Pre-sales are a great way to get people excited about your book and generate early buzz so that once your book does come out, readers will already be familiar with it and ready to purchase it. Additionally, pre-sales often count towards total sales figures taken into consideration when compiling lists (although they may not count towards rankings). So if you can drum up enough pre-sales leading up to your book’s release date, you may have an edge over other titles within its category.
Conclusion
Becoming an NYT best seller is no easy feat; there’s no guarantee that any given title will make it onto this prestigious list regardless of how well written or popular it is. However, with careful planning and smart marketing strategies like focusing on pre-sales before your book’s official launch date, you can increase your chances of hitting The New York Times Best Sellers list – and achieving literary success! With some hard work and dedication (and maybe a little luck!), you could find yourself amongst some of history’s greatest writers. Good luck.
