There is a post over at Dear Author (a primarily romance review site but they throw in a good amount of book industry news and other types of reviews every so often too), about bestseller lists. Its very interesting and worth taking a look at if you just like knowing crap like this:

"The bestseller lists actually identify only the velocity of the sale of the book rather than cumulative overall sales. This is why lay down dates are so important to authors. If the authors can capture most of their sales in one week instead of two, the book has a better chance of achieving bestselling status even if another author outsells them overtime. According to Stanford professor and researcher, Alan Sorenson, bestseller appearance actual slows the deceleration rate of book sales. Books sell well soon after their release and then the sales taper off. For a bestseller, the sales taper off at a slower rate than a book not on the bestseller list.

In Sorensen’s research, the regular visitors to the bestseller list such as Nora Roberts or John Grisham receive very little sales boost than the newcomers. First time appearing authors might see an overall increase of sales by 57% whereas repeaters might average a 13-14 percent increase in first year sales.

All a bestseller list can do is imperfectly capture the state of bookselling for one week. The problem is that no one list truly represents the nation’s consciousness as to the most popular books. Every list has a different set of measurements. There is rarely overlap between the lists and if there is, it is generally a fiction book."

The point was that the best new books aren't always the ones on the bestseller lists, and Dear Author listed the top 10 books that should be bestsellers but aren't. I agree with the first one: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. I've been thinking what other 9 books I would put in that list.. I think I have to think about it for a little while. What is your top ten that should have been a bestseller but isn't?

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Hmm, I like the way you can add collections to VOX but.. how come you can't add more than 5 links to the "My Links" sidebar or even add links to your profile? Bah. In the meantime I'm adding book/reading website links here. These are sites I often go to/like

READING

1. My paperbackswap mini reviews - short reviews (about a paragraph each book) on books I've read since mid-2006..

2. Smart Bitches, Trashy Novels – snarky reviews of romance novels.

3. Feminist SF – The Blog! – sci-fi from the feminist perspective (well written and interesting site)

4. Twisted Kingdom – group book review blog of fantasy/ sci fi/ young adult

5. Lost Book Archives – website of "lost books" – books "of print and forgotten or back in print and forgotten."

6. Luna-cat.net – website of sci-fi and fantasy by women – hasn't been updated in a while..:(

7. Pat's Fantasy Hotlist – fantasy/sci fi book reveiws and giveaways. More of a male perspective of the genre.

8. Whatwasthatbook – livejournal community where people post books that the can't remember the titles to. I end up wanting to read the book they are talking about.

9. Gnooks – literature map. Allows you to enter a writer's name and get a visual map of other authors you may like.

WRITING/PUBLISHING SIDE (it fascinates me).

1. Pub rants – literary agent blog

2. Lit Agent X – another agent blog, my favorite one because its very well written – explains things very well.

3. Paperback writer – blog of author Lynn Viehl / S.L. Veihl / Gena Hale/ Jessica Hall / Rebecca Kelly. A lot of interesting posts from the POV of a writer. She also has giveaways and supports other writers..

4. Meg Cabot's diary - chick lit and young adult author. Her blog just cracks me up

5. Neil Gaiman's journal – everyone and his mother reads this it seems.

6. Fangs, Fur, Fey – LJ community for urban fantasy novelists (only novelists can be members, everyone else can watch). Very interesting..

That's all for now. There are more, but I'm tired.

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