Bestsellers: they’re what sells best. But is it the Best?

I have worked at Barnes and Noble Booksellers for over a year and a half now, and throughout that time I have seen the transition of bestsellers, the fiction and nonfiction stories that sell the best. These titles are important to both the store and the consumer because we sell them at a discounted price, encouraging the consumer to buy whatever titles are popular, and the consumer is presented with the titles that everyone is buying, which is helpful when gift-giving or just looking for something good to read. In the hundreds of titles that have gone on and off the shelf, I realize that some titles belong up there, while others do not.

Every single James Patterson book that was released became a bestseller. Same goes for other popular authors like David Baldacci and John Grisham. For Patterson, I remember when the second book in his series Cross came out, Double Cross right around Christmastime. We would sell tremendous amounts of it; we had to have two displays of hundreds of copies of the books set up, because apparently it was an excellent gift idea. One time, a book came out, The Dangerous Days of Daniel X, which flopped immediately. That was the only book by Patterson that I read so many negative views about. But regardless, when Patterson wrote another book next month, it was back up there on the top of the bestsellers. I guess Patterson can afford to have a less popular book, because he’ll always bounce back.

The seventh Harry Potter book was on the number one bestseller shelf for many months, while we apparently refuse to put the Twilight series up there (which I have no problem with).

During the election and campaigning, Obama’s name was on at least four titles: two of them were his biographies and at least two were criticisms about him. More books were published about Obama, more people read about Obama, and even though the criticism books sold, look who won. In my opinion, because Obama was the subject of most of the books, his name was out there much more, influencing people to see what his plans are. Now, there are still many books published praising him and many criticizing him, and they both sell.

This year also brought in a good amount of movies, but that also meant bringing about a good amount of bestsellers. The Watchmen became an instant bestseller when it was previewed in the Dark Knight

Then, a few months later it went off. Then it came back during Christmas, almost died off, and then it got back up there as the movie was about to be released. Confessions of a Shopaholic and He’s Just Not That into You never sold as well as they did when the movie came out. No one ever even heard of q&a, or Slumdog Millionaire until the movie was released, and won the tremendous amount of awards. So that just goes to show that movies and books have an intricate relationship with each other: the movies need the books to get an idea and the books need the movies to sell.

And I haven’t even started on Oprah yet. Basically every book that she makes a big to-do about becomes a bestseller. I’ll never forget one day where a customer came in asking for A New Earth. No matter how I searched, I could not find it and then when I eventually did, it came up as out of print. The customer had a fit. Oprah said the book’s name, so it has to be in print; she had to read it right away! Another customer yelled at me and said I better get this book in quick, ‘cause people were going to be asking for it.

And they did. They asked for this book a million ways: “A New World?”, “Awaken to your life’s something or other…” “That book by the Eckhart guy”, “You know, the orange book that was on Oprah”. This book was on our list for months and months and just recently was taken off. Same thing for Eat, Pray, Love, people didn’t know the name but needed to read it because Oprah said it on her show. This just goes to show how easily people are influenced, and how what’s usually popular may not be the best title.

So, I wonder what’s going to be the next trend for the bestsellers. I’ve noticed that some of the titles discussed may not have substance to them, but they still sell and become popular. So it is with life, I guess. “What’s right may not be popular, and what’s popular may not be right.”