News

I’ve heard from several of you guys that two different sources in Canada have let you have Divine Misdemeanors this week. Bad Canadians! Why is it bad? Because every book that hits before the drop date on December 8th out will be one less book that will help me get higher and stay longer on the New York Times & other, Bestseller lists. Though in publishing when they say, The List, they always mean The New York Times List.

Now admittedly, the Canadian sales don’t count on the American lists, or sales, but Anita has placed on the London Times and the New York Times at the same time, though admittedly not as high in England. So again, if we hit it all at once then we have a better shot at everyone’s list. But more worrisome is that some of the Americans will order from Canada and that can hurt where we place on the Lists, and you have no idea how much importance is placed on The List standing in publishing. List standing and sales figures are the measure of a book’s success.

The more books bought in a single point of time the more likely we are to hit #1 on the Times List. I’ve hit #1 with Anita more than once, and its great, but my other girl, my Merry, has never hit #1. She’s got #2, but #1 still eludes us. I’d really like to hit that mark with Divine Misdemeanors, so the publishers and the authors that get all bent out of shape about the book being sold early aren’t being cranky, we’re trying to make sure the book gets the best sales figures and bestseller placement possible.

Hope that explains why we keep asking the early buyers where they purchased their books.