It takes roughly two weeks from date of release for a book to be eligible for the New York Times Bestseller list. Less than ten years ago there were only 4 lists hardcover/softcover and fiction/non-fiction. They split the lists since then into many, many subcategories. The reason for the split was that the Harry Potter books took over the top three spots for a solid three years producing…shall we say…discontent, among other authors and publishers that “a mere children’s book” was robbing them of their rightful place.
The result was the splitting of the list. A byproduct of this split, in our opinion, was why the Twilight Saga novels didn’t catch the media attention as quickly. They were relegated to a sub-category in the children’s books division. Had the list still been in the old style, starting with the release of New Moon, the Twilight novels would have clogged the list the way Harry Potter had. We base this theory on the fact that the novels ruled the top positions on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal lists which rank the way the New York Times used to; that is to say lumping everyone in together.
So where is all this fascinating history of the bestseller lists going you may ask? The graphic novel will be on the New York Times best seller list next week. It’s sales are the highest ever recorded for a graphic novel. The book debuted in the number 6 position on the USA Today list the first week it was eligible (Quite an accomplishment since graphic novels are not really everybody’s thing.)
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