Trivia: D&D and NYT best-sellers list

[Glyfair]

I was reading the replies to a comment Wolfgang Baur made on his blog about Kobold Quarterly being the #2 best seller at Paizo. In that thread, Monte Cook let out an interesting bit of trivia.

And speaking of skewed lists, here's some trivia: While many people know that in 2000 the NYT Bestseller List dropped "children's books" so that Harry Potter wouldn't dominate it, even before that they ruled that rpg rulebooks and supplements also didn't qualify. Based on sales, if they hadn't done that, the D&D core books would have dominated the list for quite some time, and lots of follow-up releases and support products would have made the list as well. Hell, for all I know, there'd likely be a D&D book of some kind on there every week (I no longer know WotC sales figures).

 

[werk]

Yeah, I think the Times' best seller list is based off of books shipped from the publisher, so all the books sitting on shelves count. I heard crying fowl a few times, where a publisher intentionally sends way too many books to the retailers to inflate their rank on the list to improve sales of an otherwise lack-lustre book, then just eat whatever doesn't sell.

Considering you can find modules from the 80s that are still shrink wrapped and unused I can totally believe Monte's statement. So much stock...

 

[Ace32]

That hardly seems fair for Harry Potter!

However, I can understand the notion to remove gaming supplements. They don't really offer the same casual reading experience as does the rest of the list...

Still doesn't mean those numbers shouldn't be reported! Maybe some kind of spin-off list... (with its own shelves in grocery stores)

 

[Mercule]

However, I can understand the notion to remove gaming supplements. They don't really offer the same casual reading experience as does the rest of the list...

I don't know. I like to just read Eberron books.

 

[Glyfair]

However, I can understand the notion to remove gaming supplements. They don't really offer the same casual reading experience as does the rest of the list...

It's not so much the fairness as the comparison. The fact that the 3E Core Books were selling as many copies as the top of the NYT Bestseller list.