So you\’re a conservative writer and you have a huge best seller.
But the New York Times decides not to put your book on its best seller list, which it rationalizes by contorting some ludicrous rationale that no one in his or her right mind believes.
That couldn\’t happen could it?
Uh….before you answer that, please read the following excerpt from Dylan Byers\’ piece for politico.com:
The New York Times informed HarperCollins this week that it will not include Ted Cruz\’s new biography on its forthcoming bestsellers list, despite the fact that the book has sold more copies in its first week than all but two of the Times\’ bestselling titles, the On Media blog has learned.
This week, HarperCollins, the book\’s publisher, sent a letter to The New York Times inquiring about Cruz\’s omission from the list, sources with knowledge of the situation said. The Times responded by telling HarperCollins that the book did not meet their criteria for inclusion.
“We have uniform standards that we apply to our best seller list, which includes an analysis of book sales that goes beyond simply the number of books sold,” Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy explained when asked about the omission. “This book didn\’t meet that standard this week.”
Asked to specify those standards, Murphy replied: “Our goal is that the list reflect authentic best sellers, so we look at and analyze not just numbers, but patterns of sales for every book.” (Murphy subsequently told HarperCollins that “In the case of this book, the overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases,”).
Uh huh. I see. And the Times can supply a list of other best selling books that they\’ve eliminated from their list for the same reason.
And, I\’m sure, the Times (along with a number of other similarly left-leaning print media) has a perfectly wonderful explanation of why they decline to review books – even huge best sellers – written by conservative authors (ask Mark Levin about this, and you\’ll get quite the earful).
Now you can answer the question I asked at the beginning of this blog. I bet I know what your answer will be, too.
