The Bookseller.com

3rd December 2008

ALAN GILES

Alan Giles spent 20 years in bookselling with Waterstone’s and W H Smith. He retired as c.e.o. of HMV Group last year to take up non-executive and teaching roles.

Twisted lists

19.06.08

How much effect does inclusion in bestseller lists have on a book’s commercial prospects? In some recent research*, using an ingenious methodology to strip out the ob­vious circularity of the argument, Stanford University’s Alan Sorensen concludes that the inclusion of a title in a best­seller list leads to a “modest” sales increase.

The effect is most pronounced for début authors in the first few weeks after publication. Sorensen suggests that bestseller lists work because they endorse a title, are co-ordinating mechanisms of social effects (“being in with the in-crowd”) and result in extra promotion by retailers.

W H Smith pioneered the use of best­seller lists as an instore marketing device in the 1980s, leading to tut-tutting from some quarters. Critics argued that using techniques borrowed from the music business undermined the democracy of offering customers an opportunity to decide for themselves which books to buy.

As Sorensen’s research shows, bestseller lists don’t just reflect consumer demand, they influence it. Such lists were never a pure reflection of sales, with the most promising new titles entered upon publication, and perpetual bestsellers such as dictionaries excluded to prevent boredom setting in.

Numbered charts are now at the heart of book marketing in the UK, but have yet to match the authority and perceived universality of the music charts. Nielsen BookScan data is billed in this publication as “The Official UK Top 50”, but individual chains adapt this, or use their own data to produce displays tailored to their own profile.

Would the impact on consumers be greater if the entire industry used the same chart? There’s a virtuous circle to be had with the interaction of a universally accepted national chart, and widespread media coverage, but this is harder to achieve in an age of fragmented media audiences. Even in the music business, the days when the nation tuned in to hear the Sunday afternoon chart countdown are long gone.

Conversely, bestseller sales might increase further if individual branches of the chains displayed a chart that reflected their own local market. Of course, this would not sit easily with national advertising, or the negotiation of publisher support.

But, with such a vast range of minority interest titles to choose from, a bookshop’s sales can be the most finely tuned reflection of its local community. Supermarkets increasingly adapt their food ranges to the local clientele, so why don’t they do the same with books?

 

*Journal of Industrial Economics, Dec 2007, Volume 55, Issue 4, p715–738

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