Weighing In on New NYTBR Lists

LA Times book man Josh Getlin sifts through the industry implications of the NYTBR‘s new bestseller list strategy, which splits trade and mass market paperbacks into two separate categories. The basic question being, “Did the Times create the new list to boost a genre—or its already healthy ad sales?” (Of those cited in the article, only NYTBR chief Sam Tanenhaus entertains the possibility that both motivations are in play.)

Literary blogger and occasional NYTBR contributor Lizzie Skurnick sees “a choice to be made between the conversation about books in this country and the monetization of books,” but agent Sandy Dijkstra, who you’ll recall as the instigator of a letter-writing campaign when her local newspaper announced plans to reduce its book review coverage earlier this year, loves the new list, I’m guessing not least of all because it turned her client Lisa See‘s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan into a NYT bestseller. “Eyeballs on the news page are an extremely important thing,” says Dijkstra. “Creating a new weekly list for paperback fiction is a plus for everybody who cares about the future of good writing.” As long as it isn’t buried in the arts section, you mean?

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