Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-06-24

from forty or fifty of the principal cities
of the United States and Canada. be-
ginning with Atlanta, Ga. and ending
| with Worcester, Mass. This list is
known as the official list. 1t purports
to record the six most popular books
In each city.
GO
1T IS AN OPEN SECRET, HOW
ever. that the method by which
the result is derived is purely
arbitrary. It is. however. a good
method and undoubtedly. in the
long run. one that does very
Substantial Justice. In order to under
stand this method let us take the
Boobman's latest report, the list of
sales for April, 1911. Upon that list we
find the six biggest sellers in the United
lowing order:
1. "Prodigal Judge" 2T9.
2. BROAD Highway" 30.
9. Grain of Dust 10.
4. Golden Silence" la.
). molly Make Believe" 109.
6. Marie Claire" So.
Go
THE FIGURES TO THE RIGHT OF
the titles indicate points, and not
volumes. The book receiving the
highest number of points becomes,
technically, the best selling book
Points are awarded in this wise:
A book standing first on the
list of any city receives ten points.
One standing second receives eight
points and so on down. Now, IL Mol
lie Make Believe was the best selling
book in Norfolk, Va, 1t would receive
ten points, even though its sale in
Norfolk were less than in other cities.
SO if it were the best selling book in
New York (Which means a tremendous
sale), it would get only ten points in
New York. To illustrates: A. certain
book might sell in one month 10000
in New York, and yet might get only
and might sell 100 in Los Angeles and
being there the best selling book, would
get ten points.
Go
IT is. THEREFORE,, NOT THE
aggregate amount of sales that
makes a book technically a best
seller but rather, whether in
forty-fve or fifty cities in the
United States, it has sold better
than some other book to a sufficient
tent to get 1t the requisite number of
points. The New York sale of n book
might exceed the sale in four other
cities, but would only secure a mark
ing not in excess OF ten. Its aggregate
of sales in four other cities may be
less than its New York sale, but may
secure it forty points.
Go
HOWEVER, AS ALREADY STAT
ed, it is probable that the list
does substantial justice. 1t is en-
tirely unbiased, so far as the
New York mar who makes 1T up
is concerned. He gets the reports of
retail booksellers throughout the coun-
try. He sets them down a. he gets
them. 1t Is, of course, within the
power of the retail seller, here or there.
to make returns that rave only mora
or less basis in fact. His only possible
object in so doing would be to favor
some publisher. 1t is hardly possible
that any one publisher could influence
hundreds of booksellers to this COM
mon end. However that may be, the
system seems, SO far, the best system
for the purpose of getting at the prob
ably popular novels of the day an |
year.
OF course, in these reports, which
TAXI up nine or ten pages of the Book
man, perhaps a hundred books are
~named-slx from each city. But the
final six are obtained by boiling down
all the lists into one. THE Prodigal
Judge" which heads the final list, ap-
pears at the read of lists from diff
ferent cities in about seventeen diff
ferent cases.
Now you know, if you didn't know
before, what it means to be zone Of
the six best Sellers
CO
IN THE FIRST PLACE THE
author doesn't publish a book
himself and he doesn't pay for
it's publication unless he can't get
a publisher to put 1t out. There
are publishers, however, who make a
business of encouraging authors or