by Jenny Holden writing in The Bookseller last week.
Nielsen BookScan’s “evergreen” listing is arguably the most exclusive chart in bookselling history. It is not a rundown of the biggest-selling books, although the titles do shift enormous quantities.
No, it is a list of the books that week after week prove enduringly popular; those that for the past 13 years have managed to remain in Nielsen’s top 5,000, the chart that has been called the Total Consumer Market (TCM) since 2001.
No, it is a list of the books that week after week prove enduringly popular; those that for the past 13 years have managed to remain in Nielsen’s top 5,000, the chart that has been called the Total Consumer Market (TCM) since 2001.
Out of just over 1.8 million different ISBNs that Nielsen BookScan has UK sales data for from the past 13 years, only 12 titles have appeared in every weekly top 5,000 titles chart. That is more than 650 weeks of solid, and often spectacular, sales.
It is an eclectic chart that perhaps would surprise many publishers and readers. A quick straw poll of customers at Foyles about what would be the most consistently popular books elicited answers ranging from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to J R R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, all of which for varying reasons have not made the cut.To read the rest of Holden's story and to learn which titles are on that list link to The Bookseller.
While I love Pratchett, this list shows all that is wrong with Neilscan,,,NO SHAKESPEARE!
ReplyDeleteit's an odd collection of titles, isn't it? Surprising to see eo much Terry Pratchett, though obviously he's consistently popular. But the most surprising is the Stepehn Hawking book - I wonder hoe many people actually read it.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a comment and tried to publish it by copying the word verification code, but it keeps giving me new codes, and now my comment has gone.
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