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Nonfiction and Fiction:
Competitive Books Research with Best-Seller Lists
By Lori Lisi
For evaluating books for the competition section of a book proposal, one great source is best-seller lists. (For more resources and instructions on how to write the competitive books section, see Report #2 from the How To Write A Book Proposal Library: How To Write The Competitive Books Section.)
Best-seller lists may be available through major bookstores, industry associations, industry and national newspapers and magazines, regional newspapers, and regional bookseller associations. For your convenience, I've detailed a total of 22 listings below (including every type of list mentioned).
To use these lists, review them for titles similar to yours and make notes of the ranking and date when those titles hit these lists. I recommend watching these lists over a period of time to observe fluctuations.
Major Bookstores
1. Barnes and Noble Best-Seller Lists
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bestsellers/top100.asp
They have daily lists, but the weekly and yearly lists would be the most beneficial.
2. Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/
Many specific categories to choose from. Updated hourly.
3. Powells.com
http://www.powells.com/bestsellers.html
Appears to be updated hourly.
(Borders and Waldenbooks best-seller lists are simply links to Amazon.)
Industry Associations
1. Book Sense of the American Booksellers Association
http://www.bookweb.org/booksense/bestsellers/
Have weekly lists from independent booksellers for hardcover, paperback, trade, mass market, and children’s.
Industry and National Magazines and Newspapers
1. Publishers Weekly (website for the magazine named the same)
http://www.publishersweekly.com
The menu link for best-seller lists on the home page cites lists for audio, children’s, comics, fiction, paperback, nonfiction, and religion.
2. USA Today
http://asp.usatoday.com/life/books/booksdatabase/default.aspx
Has a weekly best-seller list for fiction, nonfiction, paperback, and hardcover (up to 150 books total of a nationwide analysis). Also has a Best-Selling Books Database that contains archives of the top 150 best-selling books as far back as 1993.
3. New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/
Top 5 to 15 best-selling books for the week in the following categories: hardcover fiction, hardcover nonfiction, hardcover advice, children’s books (including picture books, chapter books, paperback books, and series books), paperback fiction, paperback nonfiction, and paperback advice. Hardcover and paperback business best sellers are two additional lists.
4. Library Journal
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Under the Tools menu on the front page is Library Bestsellers Fiction and Library Bestsellers Nonfiction. According to their site, this list is compiled with: “data on books borrowed and requested (placed on hold) at public libraries throughout the United States. It includes statistics from urban, suburban, and rural libraries.”
5. Wall Street Journal at CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/books/top10/index.html
Scroll down for Wall Street Journal’s weekly best-seller lists for fiction and nonfiction. Nationwide sales of hardcover books.
Regional Newspapers
1. Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/books/ci_5812982
If the link moves, start from the home page at http://www.denverpost.com, click on the Style menu, and find the Books link under that to the left.
This is the Denver area’s local weekly best-seller list.
2. Los Angeles Times
http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bestsellers/
Los Angeles weekly best-seller list for hardbacks and paperbacks.
3. Chicago Sun-Times
http://www.suntimes.com
Click on Entertainment menu. Toward the bottom of that page is a subsection list under Books. Weekly fiction and nonfiction list for what appears to be the Chicago and Midwest area.
4. San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/books/bestsellers/
Weekly best-seller list for the Bay Area. Fiction, nonfiction, and paperbacks.
Regional Bookseller Associations
Most sales information on these lists is based on Book Sense and independent booksellers who are members of these associations. Typically, the figures only apply to the geographic areas the association covers, but this is an interesting method for determining if certain types of books sell better in different areas of the U.S.
1. Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
http://www.nciba.com/
Weekly list for hardcover fiction and nonfiction, softcover fiction and nonfiction, mass market, and children’s. Compiled from 50 stores over the region. Their site states: “The unique character of Northern California and the independent bookstores which serve the region (the nation's second largest book market) help shape a best-seller list different from other lists. While there is overlap with other lists, the NCIBA list reflects the special qualities which help define the West Coast—culturally independent, socially aware, high-tech, and ethnically diverse.”
2. Southern California Independent Booksellers Association
http://scbabooks.org/home.html
A weekly list of hardcover fiction and nonfiction, trade paperback fiction and nonfiction, mass market, and children’s for the southern California area.
3. Midwest Booksellers Association and Great Lakes Booksellers Association
http://www.midwestbooksellers.org/bestsellers/heartland.html
http://www.books-glba.org/index00.php
Has the weekly Heartland Best-Sellers List of all independent booksellers part of this association, includes: hardcover fiction and nonfiction, trade paperback fiction and nonfiction, mass market, and children’s.
4. Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
http://www.pnba.org/
Weekly best sellers in hardcover, paperback, and mass market fiction; hardcover and paperback nonfiction; and children’s.
5. The Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
http://www.mountainsplains.com/
Current downloadable files for best-seller lists at http://mountainsplains.com/findagreatbook.html do not contain any information. You may want to consider checking back. They might update it.
6. The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
http://www.sibaweb.com/
Link for best-seller list at http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/content/blogsection/
Hardcover fiction and nonfiction, trade paperback fiction and nonfiction, mass market, and children’s. May only be weekly or monthly. Appears that the link may change, so be aware that you may have to hunt around for it each time.
7. The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
http://www.naiba.com/
See Best-Seller List link on left side. Hardcover fiction and nonfiction, trade paperback fiction and nonfiction, mass market, and children’s.
8. The New England Independent Booksellers Association
http://www.newenglandbooks.org/
Link at bottom of home page, but see http://www.newenglandbooks.org/booksense_list.html
Weekly sales list for hardcover fiction and nonfiction, trade paperback fiction and nonfiction, mass market, and children’s.
If you happen to come across other lists not represented here, feel free to let me know. Hope this was of help in your efforts of understanding the competition.
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