# Curious about how to get on the USA Today Best Seller list? Hard numbers...



## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Someone asked me via PM how many books it takes to get on the USA Today Best Seller list.  My husband did some research into the numbers he keeps track of and came up with this answer.  I figured some of you might want to know it, so here you go!  I was very grateful to Liliana Hart for posting her numbers before so it's only fair that I jump in and do the same for someone else.  Keep in mind, though, that these numbers would change week to week depending on how many books are sold overall in the market.

@#136  = 350 per day
@#54  =  650 per day
@#39  = 1500 per day

Here's the info from USA Today about how they construct this list:

Each week, USA TODAY collects sales data from booksellers representing a variety of outlets: bookstore chains, independent bookstores, mass merchandisers and online retailers. Using that data, we determine the week's 150 top-selling titles. The first 50 are published in the print version of USA TODAY each Thursday. The top 150 are published online. The rankings reflect sales from the previous Monday through Sunday.

USA TODAY's Best Selling Books list is a ranking of titles selling well each week at a broad range of retail outlets. It reflects combined sales of titles in print and electronic format, if available. For example, if Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice sells copies in hardcover, paperback and e-book during a particular week, sales from each format are combined to determine its rank. The description of a title and the publisher name refers to the version selling the most copies in a particular week - hardcover (H), paperback (P) and e-book (E).

Contributors include: Amazon.com, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble.com, Barnes & Noble Inc., Barnes & Noble e-books, BooksAMillion.com, Books-A-Million, Bookland and Books & Co., Costco, Hudson Booksellers, Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Lexington, Ky.; Cincinnati, Charlotte, Cleveland, Pittsburgh), Kobo, Inc., Powell's Books (Portland, Ore.), Powells.com, R.J. Julia Booksellers (Madison, Conn.), Schuler Books & Music (Grand Rapids, Okemos, Eastwood, Alpine, Mich.), Sony Reader Store, Target, Tattered Cover Book Store (Denver).


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

Thanks for sharing that, Elle.  I imagine it will be a while before there's any point in me wondering about it in detail - but it's always interesting to hear figures!


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## WG McCabe (Oct 13, 2012)

Thanks for sharing this, Elle. You rock.


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

Thank you so much for posting this, Elle. (And I'll admit I was the one who asked via PM.)

The numbers really do change from week to week, but it's still interesting to see the picture from week to the next. Fascinating, and so useful. 

Thank you again, and major congrats for all your much-deserved success!


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

Thanks for sharing this, Elle!

I'm wondering, are the 'sold per day' numbers a compilation of ALL your books sold? Or is this just for one particular book? 

So for example:

Suppose you have 50 books out. You sell 25 of each of those 50 books per day. So you would be selling 1250 books a day. Would they count that 1250 for the USA Bestseller list? Or does it have to be only ONE of your books selling for it to count?


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

RM Prioleau said:


> Thanks for sharing this, Elle!
> 
> I'm wondering, are the 'sold per day' numbers a compilation of ALL your books sold? Or is this just for one particular book?
> 
> ...


It's for one book, since the lists only track book-by-book. They don't track "author portfolios" anywhere that I'm aware except for Sophrosyne's list here on KB.

The book that my numbers posted refer to is Shine Not Burn. It spent 2 weeks on the NY Times and 3 on USA Today (so far). Published July 1.


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

RM Prioleau said:


> I'm wondering, are the 'sold per day' numbers a compilation of ALL your books sold? Or is this just for one particular book?


The "big lists" only track individual books, so she was selling 1500 per day of SHINE, NOT BURN the first week, 650 per day the second week, and 350 per day the third week. And that's across all formats and all retailers. (Well, all retailers that report to the list, that is. Note that Apple does not.)


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## Magda Alexander (Aug 13, 2011)

I heard your book needs to have an ISBN number (rather than the ASIN number Amazon assigns). Is this true?


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Magda Alexander said:


> I heard your book needs to have an ISBN number (rather than the ASIN number Amazon assigns). Is this true?


I heard the same thing (and it makes sense), so I made sure to have one on my book. And I used ones I bought on Bowker with my own Elle Casey imprint. I also used a different one for the ebook and paperback as required by Bowker.


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## KevinH (Jun 29, 2013)

Thanks for the info.  Just out of curiosity, I happened to be looking at some of this info yesterday so your post is exceptionally timely from my point of view.  One of the things to note is that you have to be selling at a retailer that reports numbers to USA Today (or NY TImes or whoever) for this.  So, if you're selling 2000 copies per day on ARe, it won't get you on the list if ARe isn't a bookseller that they collect bestseller info from.  (For the record, I don't know if ARe is or isn't such a bookseller.)

Also, your odds of making the list seem to be much better if you sell in large bursts as opposed to steadily over time - eg, you seemingly have a better chance of making it if you sell 500 copies per day for a week than 200 copies per day for a month.


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

Magda Alexander said:


> I heard your book needs to have an ISBN number (rather than the ASIN number Amazon assigns). Is this true?


Yes and no. Having the ISBN makes it much easier for them to track the sales across the retailers.

That being said, I know people who have made the lists without IBSNs. (Albeit, those were all at least a year ago, so I don't know how it's working now.) They were actually quite shocked when they made lists, because they didn't think they were "at that point" so never bothered with an ISBN, but were pleasantly surprised to discover themselves on the list. Now they buy ISBNs.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

KevinH said:


> Thanks for the info. Just out of curiosity, I happened to be looking at some of this info yesterday so your post is exceptionally timely from my point of view. One of the things to note is that you have to be selling at a retailer that reports numbers to USA Today (or NY TImes or whoever) for this. So, if you're selling 2000 copies per day on ARe, it won't get you on the list if ARe isn't a bookseller that they collect bestseller info from. (For the record, I don't know if ARe is or isn't such a bookseller.)
> 
> Also, your odds of making the list seem to be much better if you sell in large bursts as opposed to steadily over time - eg, you seemingly have a better chance of making it if you sell 500 copies per day for a week than 200 copies per day for a month.


In the link I provided, you will see a list of the booksellers they get info from (and therefore, the sales that will count towards their tally).

Your assumption is not correct on the second part of your post. As stated in the link and my OP, they measure from Monday to Sunday, so they only count one week's worth of sales. So theoretically if you have a single day where you sell 10,000 books (like if you launch a book on the last day they're counting), you will make the list.


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## KevinH (Jun 29, 2013)

ellecasey said:


> In the link I provided, you will see a list of the booksellers they get info from (and therefore, the sales that will count towards their tally).


Thanks. I saw them listed but did not realize it was an all-inclusive list (ie, I thought there might be some other booksellers not listed).


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

Yes, the particular "counting week" is an important factor to keep in mind as you decide on a promotion and/or release schedule, if hitting a list is of concern. You will want the spike in sales to start on Monday and keep going throughout the entire week, rather than starting on, say, Saturday or Sunday and going for a week.


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## dotx (Nov 4, 2010)

ellecasey said:


> I heard the same thing (and it makes sense), so I made sure to have one on my book. And I used ones I bought on Bowker with my own Elle Casey imprint. I also used a different one for the ebook and paperback as required by Bowker.


Thanks. I didn't know this. So it's one ISBN for all ebook formats and one for the paperback (two ISBNs per book), correct?


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

ellecasey said:


> *Keep in mind, though, that these numbers would change week to week depending on how many books are sold overall in the market.*
> 
> @#136 = 350 per day


To illustrate the point about the number changing from week to week based on how many books are sold overall, this last week it took roughly 2450 books sold to make it to #136. At the end of June, it took roughly 7000 books sold for a similar ranking. I would imagine that during the post-Christmas period, the "back" of the USAT list (the 140-150 range) could even take 15,000 or more, just because of the massively increased volume of books sold overall.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

dotx said:


> Thanks. I didn't know this. So it's one ISBN for all ebook formats and one for the paperback (two ISBNs per book), correct?


Yes, and some would argue you need one for each "format" meaning one for mobi and one for epub, but no frigging way am I doing that.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Amanda Brice said:


> To illustrate the point about the number changing from week to week based on how many books are sold overall, this last week it took roughly 2450 books sold to make it to #136. At the end of June, it took roughly 7000 books sold for a similar ranking. I would imagine that during the post-Christmas period, the "back" of the USAT list (the 140-150 range) could even take 15,000 or more, just because of the massively increased volume of books sold overall.


Right ... so if your goal is to get on the list, find the lowest month for sales historically (summer), launch during that month, and launch on a Monday.  Oh, and ... write a good book that people want to buy. lol


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## dotx (Nov 4, 2010)

ellecasey said:


> Yes, and some would argue you need one for each "format" meaning one for mobi and one for epub, but no frigging way am I doing that.


Are we sure this is the case? I just check H.M. Ward's ebooks and they all seem to have ASINs, not ISBNs.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

dotx said:


> Are we sure this is the case? I just check H.M. Ward's ebooks and they all seem to have ASINs, not ISBNs.


If you really need to know, I suggest you go to the source. There's an email address at the bottom of the USA Today best seller parameters (you can find it on their site). You could email them and ask them. Asking people here might not get you the horse's mouth info you need. I posted my understanding of the issue and my understanding of how books are tracked, but I didn't get that info from USA Today. I have 100 ISBNs, so it wasn't a big deal for me to use a couple just to be sure I wouldn't miss the list if the sales were there.


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## dotx (Nov 4, 2010)

ellecasey said:


> If you really need to know, I suggest you go to the source. There's an email address at the bottom of the USA Today best seller parameters (you can find it on their site). You could email them and ask them. Asking people here might not get you the horse's mouth info you need. I posted my understanding of the issue and my understanding of how books are tracked, but I didn't get that info from USA Today. I have 100 ISBNs, so it wasn't a big deal for me to use a couple just to be sure I wouldn't miss the list if the sales were there.


Sorry, I didn't mean the question to sound rude. I was just curious.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

dotx said:


> Sorry, I didn't mean the question to sound rude. I was just curious.


No, I didn't take it that way. But I know some people get so panicked about the details being exactly right (I know I'm that way sometimes), I think it's best not to speculate. If you do find out from USA Today, I hope you'll come post here with the info.


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## KellyHarper (Jul 29, 2012)

Do you know, offhand, if the Amazon #'s include the foreign entities? Namely, UK?

If not, I'll just have to search around... or pray for more .com sales


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

KellyHarper said:


> Do you know, offhand, if the Amazon #'s include the foreign entities? Namely, UK?


My guess is no. After all, we're talking about *USA* Today. 

Also, it says in the description that they count Amazon.com. They didn't say Amazon.co.uk.


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## KellyHarper (Jul 29, 2012)

Amanda Brice said:


> My guess is no. After all, we're talking about *USA* Today.
> 
> Also, it says in the description that they count Amazon.com. They didn't say Amazon.co.uk.


That was my assumption, but I wasn't certain


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

It's US booksellers, I'm pretty sure.  Otherwise, we'd see a lot more foreign titles there (meaning UK, not foreign language).


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## Courtney Milan (Feb 27, 2011)

dotx said:


> Are we sure this is the case? I just check H.M. Ward's ebooks and they all seem to have ASINs, not ISBNs.


Amazon doesn't show you if a book has an ISBN. I have ISBNs on my books and it doesn't list the ISBN for them to consumers (at least not that I can tell). Go to Kobo to see if a book has an ISBN--and it looks like H.M. Ward does.


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## dotx (Nov 4, 2010)

Courtney Milan said:


> Amazon doesn't show you if a book has an ISBN. I have ISBNs on my books and it doesn't list the ISBN for them to consumers (at least not that I can tell). Go to Kobo to see if a book has an ISBN--and it looks like H.M. Ward does.


So your book still gets assigned an ASIN even if you have your own ISBN to provide? I thought ASINs were given as a replacement for ISBNs.


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

No, an ASIN is what Amazon uses, but it doesn't mean it's just if you don't have an ISBN. Every product on Amazon (books, clothes, toys, TVs, whatever) has an ASIN. It's a 10-digit number and back when the ISBN system was 10 digits, they used the ISBN as the ASIN. Later ISBN became a 13-digit number and Amazon was selling more than just books anyway, so they started a system of both letters and numbers.

Now your ASIN will bear absolutely no relation to your ISBN (if you have one). You might not have asn ISBN, but you will have an ASIN.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

dotx said:


> So your book still gets assigned an ASIN even if you have your own ISBN to provide? I thought ASINs were given as a replacement for ISBNs.


Every single product on Amazon has an ASIN, regardless. It's Amazon's inventory tracker.

Here's Amazon's FAQ on it:

FAQ: ISBN-13 for Amazon Associates
The International Standards Organization (ISO) approved a change to the length of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) from 10 digits (ISBN-10) to 13 digits (ISBN-13) effective January 1, 2007. This list of Frequently Asked Questions provides information about how the new ISBNs affect Amazon Associates.

What's an ISBN? What's an ASIN? What do they have to do with each other and with Associates links?

An ISBN is a unique identifier assigned to every book. The ISBN is frequently printed above the bar code on the back of a book. ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Item Number. Every product in Amazon's catalog has a unique 10-digit ASIN which Associates use when they want to link to that specific item on Amazon.com. Historically, the ASIN assigned to a book was the same as its ISBN. For example, the ISBN for The Great Gatsby is 0743273567 and you can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743273567. A recent Associates link to that book might look like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743273567/?tag=assoc-id-20 while an older link might look like this: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743273567/assoc-id-20 .

Amazon plans to continue using 10-digit ASINs so in the future a book's ASIN will be different than its ISBN, just as items in product categories like Electronics or Kitchen may have a manufacturer SKU (stock keeping unit) or other identifier that may be more or fewer characters than the ASIN.

Do I have to change any links because of ISBN-13?

No. ASINs for existing books will stay the same so any Associates links to specific books on Amazon will continue to work.

If I know the 13-digit ISBN for a book, can I use that in a Product Link to Amazon?

No. Associates Product Links must include the 10-digit ASIN of the item. If you know the 13-digit ISBN, you can look up the ASIN by searching for the book in Associates Central or on Amazon.com. For example, if you wanted to link to the book that has the 13-digit ISBN 9780743273565, you could go to Associates Central -> Build Links -> Product Links and search for "9780743273565". You'll see The Great Gatsby in the search results and can click "Get HTML" to generate an Associates link to that item which includes the correct ASIN and your Associates ID.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Thanks so much for sharing the info, Elle, and also starting the ISBN conversation. I had no idea you had to use them for Amazon ebooks to get on the bestseller lists, so despite having 1000+ ISBNs at my disposal, have been not bothering with them except for print editions and Smashwords distribution.

Now I want to know, *can I use the same Smashwords ISBN and assign it on Amazon* too?

Or should I just assign an entirely new ebook ISBN just to the Amazon ebook editions?

Any ideas?

I already have a hardcover edition ISBN, a paperback edition ISBN, a Smashwords ebook ISBN, a XinXii ebook ISBN, and this would be the 5th one just for Amazon, and frankly it's a logistics mess keeping track of all the ebook iSBNs for *just ONE book*!


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Vera Nazarian said:


> Thanks so much for sharing the info, Elle, and also starting the ISBN conversation. I had no idea you had to use them for Amazon ebooks to get on the bestseller lists, so despite having 1000+ ISBNs at my disposal, have been not bothering with them except for print editions and Smashwords distribution.
> 
> Now I want to know, *can I use the same Smashwords ISBN and assign it on Amazon* too?
> 
> ...


ISBNs that you own are not for each vendor. They are for each format of the book. So one ISBN for the paperback, one ISBN for the ebook. See earlier comments on this thread about whether different ebook formats should get separate ISBNs.

^^ This info does not apply to ISBNs you get from Createspace or other sources. This are for Bowker ISBNs you buy that have YOUR imprint on them.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

ellecasey said:


> ISBNs that you own are not for each vendor. They are for each format of the book. So one ISBN for the paperback, one ISBN for the ebook. See earlier comments on this thread about whether different ebook formats should get separate ISBNs.
> 
> ^^ This info does not apply to ISBNs you get from Createspace or other sources. This are for Bowker ISBNs you buy that have YOUR imprint on them.


Mine are all Bowker.

Aha! OK, this is good to know, and I am assuming Smashwords assigns the EPUB, which means I cannot use the same for Amazon, since it's Kindle!

I wonder what format XinXii assigns!

Thanks, Elle!


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Here's a resource for you. This is ISBN international, the agency that manages them around the world. Here they say you have to use a separate ISBN for every format (epub, pdf, mobi, etc.) and for each different edition.

http://www.isbn-international.org/faqs


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## KerryT2012 (Dec 18, 2012)

ellecasey said:


> Someone asked me via PM how many books it takes to get on the USA Today Best Seller list. My husband did some research into the numbers he keeps track of and came up with this answer. I figured some of you might want to know it, so here you go! I was very grateful to Liliana Hart for posting her numbers before so it's only fair that I jump in and do the same for someone else. Keep in mind, though, that these numbers would change week to week depending on how many books are sold overall in the market.
> 
> @#136 = 350 per day
> @#54 = 650 per day
> ...


Great info - (Do you ever stop working?) I'm laughing as I ask this question, because I'm so far from reaching these numbers, but for how long do you have to be selling those numbers to be listed? Is it per month or just for that week?


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## KellyHarper (Jul 29, 2012)

She's listing them in the week she achieved the corresponding rank.

Instead of per day, you could multiply them by 7 to find the actual # sold to achieve the according rank. Sell that # in 1 week (mon-sun) and expect good things


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Sarwah2012 said:


> Great info - (Do you ever stop working?) I'm laughing as I ask this question, because I'm so far from reaching these numbers, but for how long do you have to be selling those numbers to be listed? Is it per month or just for that week?


It's measured from Monday to Sunday. Each week, you start from scratch again.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Okay, thanks to this important info, Elle, I just went into Amazon KDP and assigned ISBN *978-1-60762-120-1* to *Cobweb Bride*!

Will deal with all the other books later (groan), but for now -- not that *Cobweb Bride* is anywhere near the bestseller list, not even by an astronomical mile -- but at least it has the ISBN if needed, for future success!

So... Yaaay!!!

Thanks again for starting this important conversation!


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Bighoneydog said:


> Can I ask another ISBN question? (sorry if it's a stupid one - I'm new to all this!  )
> 
> *Can you buy an ISBN from Bowker later and add it to your Amazon ebook and replace your CreateSpace one for your print version?*
> 
> ...


I'd email Createspace with that one.


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## Maya Cross (May 28, 2012)

I hit USA Today for the second time at the start of July with no ISBNs. But it was a slightly weird situation. I've hit the list two weeks in total, first time was back in May when Lockout launched, and it did well enough to make the list.

The second time was when B&N included me in an email. In that situation, both my books sold a roughly identical number of copies, but only Locked showed up on the list (and it was at #80, so there's basically no way that tiny difference should have excluded Lockout). I don't know if ISBNs had anything to do with that, but in any case, both books have been on there with no ISBNs. The question that interests me is if it matters for the NYT, because if it does that might be enough to make me get some.


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

Very useful info.  Thanks for sharing it!


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## Chris Culver (Jan 28, 2011)

> I don't know if ISBNs had anything to do with that, but in any case, both books have been on there with no ISBNs. The question that interests me is if it matters for the NYT, because if it does that might be enough to make me get some.


I hit both without an ISBN; the NY Times might have changed the rules since then, but in the fall of 2011 at least you didn't need one.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Chris Culver said:


> I hit both without an ISBN; the NY Times might have changed the rules since then, but in the fall of 2011 at least you didn't need one.


This is really good to know, thanks, but now I am thinking, it's better to be safe than sorry.

So, ISBNs for me all the way, from here on.


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## Nathan Elliott (May 29, 2012)

I don't see how an ISBN would help them tally the sales.  They'd still have to watch for the people who have one for mobi, one for ePub, one for paperback, possibly even more.  If they're already doing the work to link those up properly (which I think you can only do by looking at title and author), then I don't think the lack of an ISBN will make any difference.  I know some people (and maybe some newspapers?) think it's a sign of a "serious" writer or something, but really the usefulness of ISBNs is rapidly fading, at least in digital, IMHO.  The only way I can see it helping is if you ignore Bowker's "rules" and use a single one for all ebook formats.  But surely they are't counting on you doing that.   Am I missing something?  Anybody know where the rumor about ISBNs started?  We know for a fact that getting on the list does not *require* them.  It might just be superstition that it even helps.


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## legion (Mar 1, 2013)

Hmm...interesting and helpful info in this thread.
Thanks for posting Elle!


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## Emily Kimelman (Apr 29, 2011)

Thanks for posting and to everyone who shared their info. Really interesting how much it changes from week to week.


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## Maya Cross (May 28, 2012)

DDark said:


> How did you know you were on the lists? Just curious if you have to go looking on a weekly basis or if they have an archive. Some of the sites I can never do an archive search to see if a book was listed. Not that I'd be there...lol
> 
> Yes, I know an Indie this year who was on the NYT (and USA today) lists with no ISBN. I know several, in fact, but one I recently watched her book skyrocket from obscurity. What I'd really like to know is..*.how* to get on the USA bestseller list. I don't have a firstborn to sell, but I can get started on that.
> 
> Actually I'm happy where I am. If it ever happens, great. If not, then it's not hurting me right now. I'm still able to write FT, so I have no complaints. I got up around #150 at one time last year and i was probably moving around 400 books, so I can imagine the top 100 would have crazy sales!


I suspected I might be on the list those weeks, so I checked. That said you can search. See here:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/best-selling/search/author/maya%20cross/

I don't think the title has really done that much for sales, maybe NYT would do more given that it's more recognisable. Mostly it just seems like a cool thing to have.


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## JamieCampbell (May 29, 2013)

ellecasey said:


> Oh, and ... write a good book that people want to buy. lol


I just finished reading it and I couldn't put it down. You definitely deserve it.


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

I've been curious about this too so thanks for sharing!


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

JamieCampbell said:


> I just finished reading it and I couldn't put it down. You definitely deserve it.


Thanks so much!


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## KellyHarper (Jul 29, 2012)

Harper Alibeck said:


> So I'm trying to understand this. You're saying your husband guestimated that to hit #136 on the USA Today list recently, the book needed to sell an average of 350 copies per day for the Mon-Sun (7 days) of a given tracked week?
> 
> Which is about 2450-2500 copies.
> 
> ...


I've seen those kinds of numbers for the NYT list, but not the USAT.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

It totally depends on the week.  Summer is very slow compared to other weeks, so it makes sense it would take less sales to get there (and that sales are much harder to come by).


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## LG Castillo (Jun 28, 2012)

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Harper Alibeck said:


> Which numbers? My understanding is that it takes 25K-35K to hit the NYT in a given week, and about 6700 to hit the USA Today list.
> 
> Elle has a good point about timing, though -- the time frame I was absorbing this info from was May/June. It would make sense that January would have MUCH higher raw numbers, and that late July-early September might have lower raw numbers.
> 
> Thanks for giving recent data -- it's always helpful!


I hit the NYT with less than that (again, during July, the slowest month of the year). I think it was around 18k maybe? I could be totally wrong about that. I'll have to ask the husband when he's awake again. He's 6 hours ahead of me this week.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

ellecasey said:


> Schuler Books & Music (Grand Rapids, Okemos, Eastwood, Alpine, Mich.),


Hey, that's our local chain!

(I wonder if I could take bribes to sway the best seller list....)


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

daringnovelist said:


> Hey, that's our local chain!
> 
> (I wonder if I could take bribes to sway the best seller list....)


I'm trying not to get freaked out by the fact that your post cited to something I never posted on KB. How in the heck did that happen, Besty? Harvey? Ann? Anyone? Buehler?


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## KellyHarper (Jul 29, 2012)

ellecasey said:


> I'm trying not to get freaked out by the fact that your post cited to something I never posted on KB. How in the heck did that happen, Besty? Harvey? Ann? Anyone? Buehler?


It's in your OP


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

KellyHarper said:


> It's in your OP


Oh. Phew. For a second there I thought I was losing it.


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## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

> @#136 = 350 per day
> @#54 = 650 per day
> @#39 = 1500 per day


Thanks for the info., Elle. Very interesting to see how sales have to increase exponentially in order to climb higher once you get near the top 50.


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## Anna Elliott (Apr 24, 2011)

Thanks to Elle for sharing her numbers.

I just want to add one more data point:  This past week (ending Sunday, August 4, which was the USA Today weekly cutoff), I sold over 3900 copies of Kitty Bennet's Diary on Amazon and BN.  (I'm excluding Apple because I don't think they report sales to USA Today).  It turns out that 3900 was not enough to get into the top 150 this time, even though it was an average of 560 per day, which, using Elle's numbers from previous weeks, looked like it should easily have landed a spot.  This was not a glitch or the result of a lack of an ISBN or anything like that.  The books that just barely made it onto the list had better sales rank histories than mine did for the week, so I believe this was simply a more competitive week.  

I was helped by BookBub, Pixel of Ink, KFD, BookBlast, and Kboards (thanks, Harvey!) and peaked at #27 or so on Kindle and maybe #11 or so IIRC on BN.  The book that made the list at #149 peaked at about #15 on Kindle following a BookBub ad the day before mine.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Congrats Elle.
Now silly ISBN question.
Is there any rhyme or reason to an ISBN.  As in other than as an identifier do the numbers mean anything?


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

cinisajoy said:


> Congrats Elle.
> Now silly ISBN question.
> Is there any rhyme or reason to an ISBN. As in other than as an identifier do the numbers mean anything?


Yeah, the numbers identify the publisher and a few other things.

http://guides.lib.ku.edu/content.php?pid=107596&sid=1379313


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Cherise Kelley said:


> Yeah, the numbers identify the publisher and a few other things.
> 
> http://guides.lib.ku.edu/content.php?pid=107596&sid=1379313


Thank you.


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