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E-book charts published in Wall Street Journal

31.10.11 | Charlotte Williams

The first official sales charts including e-book sales data have been published in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, with Nielsen BookScan now supplying e-book sales reports to the US paper.

Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (Henry Holt & Co) was number one across all three non-fiction charts—hardcover, e-book and combined—with The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks taking the hardcover and combined fiction top spots, losing out to Bonnie by Iris Johansen (St Martin's Press) in the e-book only chart.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) was among the titles that appeared on the fiction hardcover chart, but not on the e-book chart, with The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Penguin) at number nine on the e-book fiction chart and not on the hardback chart, though it appeared at number five on the combined e-book and physical sales chart.  

According to Nielsen, all major e-book retailers will contribute data on US sales for four new charts that will include self-published digital releases, children's books and perennials. The newspaper, and its online edition, will contain combined print and e-book charts for fiction and non-fiction, as well as e-book-only charts for both fiction and non-fiction which will include books priced at 99 cents and above.

The e-book charts do not contain volume or value sales, but only list the top 10 bestsellers, with Nielsen BookScan saying this was due to the increased risk of exposure to a retailer. 

Nielsen BookScan vice-president and general manager Jonathan Stolper said: "As consumers and booksellers continue to embrace the potential of e-books, we are very happy to be working with the Wall Street Journal to produce the most accurate bestseller lists available. These new charts uniquely reflect what people are really buying and reading and will most definitely advance the industry's understanding of e-book bestsellers." 

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By In if for the long term!

Good to hear that the e book charts won't solely be based upon volume, in the same way the current physical rankings exist. Volume is applicable when retailers actually have a sense of shifting a physical unit, but gauging e efficacy by volume is sales suicide, with 'that which is most successful' actually reflecting 'that which is most cheap'. Lets break the habit of a lifetime!!

Mon, 31/10/2011 - 14:30

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