Amazon Charts to Challenge NY Times Bestseller List

For the last ninety years the phrase ‘New York Times Bestseller’ has been the benchmark for quality literature. The New York Times Bestseller list has for a long time been the ultimate seal of approval to sell books, but there’s a pretender to the throne from Amazon!

Last week, Amazon, the world’s biggest booksellers released the Amazon Charts, complementing the bestselling books lists already generated by the site’s algorithms. The new Amazon charts will use information on sales, combined with date obtained from Kindle and Audible users to determine what is actually being read and listened to and it could well become the benchmark of good books!

The New York Times bestseller list has been the best to follow for the last ninety years, but it only takes into consideration the books that people are buying, not whether they are then read. That gives Amazon the edge as this will be the first chart that actually takes into account the books that are bought but never finished, or never read.

This move could completely turn the entire industry on its head. How many prize winning, New York Times Bestselling novels are sitting on your shelf, unread? My answer here is six, including my most well known ‘did not finish’, Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

That said, the New York Times Bestseller tab sells a lot of books and it may take a while before any Amazon tag gets the same respect as a list that has been around for the last nine decades.