Planet Money

How to make a BOOK into a bestseller

51 min

The Planet Money podcast explores the opaque and often gamed world of the New York Times Bestseller list, using their own book's journey as a case study. The episode reveals how the list, a powerful sales driver, operates on a secret formula, inspiring authors and publishers to employ various strategies—from historical pranks and targeted sales to modern bulk buying—to achieve bestseller status. Ultimately, the Planet Money book secured a #3 spot, highlighting the list's significant economic and reputational impact.

Summarized by Podsumo

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✨ Key Takeaways

1

The New York Times Bestseller list's selection process is notoriously secret, based on a "secret formula" and protected by the First Amendment, not just raw sales data.
2

Authors have historically attempted to game the system, from Jean Shepard's 1950s fake book "I, Libertine" to Jacqueline Suzanne's targeted sales to specific bookstores in the 1960s.
3

A common modern strategy involves bulk purchasing books, often "laundered" through specialized firms, to artificially inflate sales, a tactic the NYT combats with a "dagger" symbol indicating suspicious sales.
4

Pre-orders and strong first-week sales are critical for a book's chances, as being named a bestseller creates a "rich-get-richer" snowball effect, driving further demand.
5

Despite a promotional hiccup with a missing poster, the Planet Money book successfully leveraged pre-order campaigns and a live tour (where tickets included book purchases) to debut at #3 on the list.

💬 Notable Quotes

"The weird thing about the bestseller list is that we have no idea how it's put together. The New York Times is famously opaque."
"And what happens when a book is named to a bestseller list is a sort of rich-get richer effect. It has a snowball effect where being named a bestseller becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."

— Laura McGraph
"Our bestseller list has nothing to do, for instance, with our book review or whether a book has been assessed by one of our critics... we want the lists to reflect organic demand."

— Patrick Healey