Imagine a “best-seller” list that doesn’t use sales numbers to compile said list. You are imagining the New York Times Best Seller List. Weird, right? Apparently, the legendary paper doesn’t really use sales numbers to compile their list.
James Patterson, the renowned author, suspected the paper was ‘cooking the books” in terms of prompting which books are considered most popular. The NRT list is the industry standard and is very influential in dictating what people read. Apparently, conservative publications aren’t getting the same publicity, regardless of sales. Shocking! Check this out.
Novelist James Patterson published concerns over the authenticity of the oft-touted New York Times Best Seller List.
Patterson cited how the list excluded a book from Mike Pompeo, despite Donald Trump’s former secretary of state outselling six books that made the list. He also tweeted how the fiction section of the chart included four titles that sold fewer copies than J.D. Robb’s recent novel, a work the list did not include.
Next, Patterson wrote The Times a letter in which he accused it of cooking the list. The outlet did not deny said accusation.
In fact, The Times informed Patterson’s publisher it does not rely solely on “raw” sales when placing a title atop its “sales chart.”
I recently wrote @NYTimes a letter about them cooking the books on their best seller lists. They told my publisher they didn’t rely on just “raw” sales. And they refused to run the letter. But you, dear reader, can read it here. Please spread the word. https://t.co/9UmR4FcjhC pic.twitter.com/fr5NfX7uME
— James Patterson (@JP_Books) March 29, 2023
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This must be why none of the books I haven’t written yet haven’t made the list. Maybe if Billboard used the same business model, I would have that number one single I’ve been trying to get. Seriously though, how can the New York Times get away with manipulating what America reads under the guise of publishing a list? That feels like false advertising.
The New York Times Best Seller List is not dissimilar to the Apple Podcast chart, where downloads are a factor but anonymous employees have the ability to raise or lower a title no matter its success.
So, your skepticism will be warranted when you click on the Twitter bio of a progressive author touting their “New York Times Best Seller” status.
Ultimately, James Patterson has become a menace to the book industry. He has sold over 420 million books and has set his sights on exposing the political biases within the genre.
Last summer, he revealed that publishing companies were openly rejecting titles from white male authors, no matter their skill.
Patterson recently told SiriusXM that CNN and MSNBC banned him from promoting his newest book, “Walk the Blue Line,” because it portrayed a fictitious police officer as heroic.
“I had no trouble getting on Fox,” Patterson told host Doug Brunt about promoting the book. “But I couldn’t get on CNN or MSNBC.”
This is indicative of the way our country is now. Cops are bad guys, white authors are being discriminated against, and we are being manipulated and fed the media the left wants us to see.
James Patterson has exposed one of the biggest offenders in the Times, and now people are more aware that they perhaps aren’t reading the “best-selling” works. There is no general credibility with the New York Times, and now you can add the Best Seller list to that.