Bestseller List vs Backlist: Which List Promises a Long Career for Authors?
Statistically speaking, a book’s chance of making The New York Times bestseller list is less than one percent. But that’s the list most authors want to be on. On, this week’s episode of the Your BIPoC Writing Coach podcast, Lori L. Tharps shares a different, better measure for success. And this isn’t just her opinion, this is what agents, publishers and savvy authors know is true: The backlist is where you want to land if you want a long career as an author.
On the show you will learn:
Why it doesn’t make mathematical sense to aim for a bestseller's list.
The difference between the front list and the backlist.
The truth about how many authors actually earn out their advance.
The lifetime financial benefits of being on a publisher’s backlist.
What is the Backlist?
All publishers have a catalog of backlist titles. These are the books they published that are at least one year old and they continue to sell. Year after year. (FYI, a publisher’s new list of books is called their frontlist)
Let’s be clear, publishers don’t keep printing and distributing copies of every book, just because they published it in 2015. If nobody’s buying, or they deem it irrelevant or problematic for some reason, they will pull it from the backlist and your book goes out of print.
Meanwhile, if the book provides steady sales over time, and it stays on the publisher’s backlist, then there are countless opportunities to find new readers, and best of all, authors have the possibility to earn out their advance and start earning royalties on the book.
Bestseller Lists Aren’t All Bad
Not every book bestseller’s list is as opaque and misleading as The New York Times bestseller’s list. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to have the gold star of knowing your book outsold several others. Just because you’re an author, doesn’t mean you don’t want recognition of all of the hard work put into writing and promoting your book.
Some alternatives to The New York Times book list include, The USA Today Bestseller’s List, The Indie Weekly Bestseller’s List and Bookshop.org ranks their bestseller’s too. We’re super excited about the new BLK Bestseller’s list that is a new monthly bestseller’s list that ranks fiction, nonfiction, children’s books and poetry bestsellers by Black authors. That list is purely based on national sales figures so there’s no gaming the system. (Check out this episode of the BLK Powerhouse podcast to learn more about this list). While we are loathe to support the devil that is Amazon, the most recent stats show that 50 percent of books are purchased on Amazon. So, if you want to see how your book is selling, check their rankings.
Your Famous Author Era Continues
Remember, this season on the Your BIPoC Writing Coach podcast, our theme is the ‘Your Famous Author Era.’ All season long we are talking about how authors can promote their work, build an author platform, and find the fans who will buy, read and support their work over time. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss a single episode.