American Booksellers Association Releases Book Sense Bestseller List

Posted on December 8, 1999

The American Booksellers Association has announced the release of the Book Sense Bestseller List. The list is compiled from sales figures supplied by many of the country's most famous and beloved independent bookstores, including The Tattered Cover in Denver, Powell's in Portland, Wordsworth in Cambridge, Politics and Prose in D.C., Hungry Mind in St. Paul and Kepler's in Silicon Valley.

The data for the list is gathered from Book Sense independent booksellers all across the country, and represents a weighted balance of both store size and geographic distribution. Sales figures are compiled at end of business on Saturday, and are e-mailed to the reporting stores and publishers on the following Tuesday. The list is posted at bookweb.org by Thursday for bookstores and consumers.

The Book Sense Bestseller list will regularly feature the top fifteen books in Trade Paperback Fiction, Trade Paperback Nonfiction, Hardcover Fiction, and Hardcover Nonfiction, as well as the top five books in both the Children's and Mass Market categories. In addition to the standard top sellers, the list will also highlight as a regular feature several books "On the Rise" which fall below the top fifteen. "On the Rise" this week are Blindness by author Jose Saramago in the Trade Paperback Fiction category, and Flu by Bari Kolata in the Hardcover Nonfiction category.

Additionally, the list will highlight as a sidebar four "Booksellers' Choice" selections which have been hand selected by independent booksellers across the country as among their favorites. Periodically the list will contain "Category Bestsellers" for special categories including African American, poetry, mystery, illustrated children's books, travel and gay & lesbian interest.

"The Book Sense Bestseller List is the largest and most accurate representation of independent booksellers' sales across the country, and will be valuable not only to independent booksellers, but to consumers and publishers as well," said ABA Chief Executive Officer Avin Mark Domnitz.