The Dwindling Number of Authors on NYT Fiction Bestseller List [OC]
Posted by waitingforgoodoh
![The Dwindling Number of Authors on NYT Fiction Bestseller List [OC]](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/o72yc7v39ode1-1024x778.png "The Dwindling Number of Authors on NYT Fiction Bestseller List [OC]")
The Dwindling Number of Authors on NYT Fiction Bestseller List [OC]
Posted by waitingforgoodoh
9 Comments
I got this data through the NYT API, which is fun to play with. You’re welcome to access it & make a copy through this[ Google Sheet.](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mzl3GcyRxxl6AEzjMJdUxZhOMwsGaoROAod_rg_JC3s/edit?gid=1821465921#gid=1821465921) I analyzed it in detail [here](https://residualthoughts.substack.com/p/which-book-clubs-are-most-powerful), check it out if you’re interested!
Yeah it’s all political shitfucks and self help grifters. God forbid anything of value makes it on the list
Did anything notable cause the 2022 drop? Saw 35 fewer entries.
And if you looked at the number of male authors represented you’d find those numbers already to be much fewer and declining even faster. 🙂
NYTBS is being overrun by female authors and romance novelists. Safe to say quality is suffering as a result.
*Shudders*
Yes, quality definitely goes down when there are more *shudder* females involved.
People are now aware that those things are just bought and mean nothing, so the value is diminished a lot.
Yeah, the proliferation of choice results not in a proliferation of popular authors, but rather winner takes all, as only a few writers can break through the “noise” and gain recognition.
NYT’s bestsellers are based more on editorial picks than actual sales. Always thought that was misleading.
Since the list is mostly about orders from retailers to publishers and wholesalers (and emphatically not about what the reading public wants), this suggests to me that corporations are increasingly …ehmm… conservative (cowardly) about the books they wish to try to sell.
I’d draw some lines to other cultural dynamics in the offing but that’s probably self evident.