It’s been a quiet few days for New Zealand book news, but here’s something interesting for publishers: a report on whether book sales rise after a title makes the bestseller lists.

Bestseller Lists and Product Variety: The Case of Book Sales was written by Alan Sorensen of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. It uses weekly hardcover fiction sales data to evaluate the impact of the New York Times bestseller list on sales

There are probably useful parallels to be made with New Zealand’s own list. An executive summary reveals the key points of the study:

Sorensen estimates that previously best-selling authors got the least benefit from being on the New York Times list, while unknowns had the greatest jump in sales. On average, he estimates, appearing on the Times list might increase a book's first-year sales by 13 to 14 per cent, but for first-time authors sales probably would increase by an impressive 57 per cent. And for established authors like Danielle Steel or John Grisham whose every novel seems to become a bestseller, ‘the list has no discernible impact on sales’ writes Sorensen.

The full study is available online in PDF format.

Sorenson’s previous report also looked at book sales, but in conjunction with reviews. Is Any Publicity Good Publicity? A Note on the Impact of Book Reviews evaluated the impact of New York Times book reviews on sales. It found that any publicity is good publicity: even negative reviews lead to increases in sales:

We interpret this finding as evidence that book reviews serve largely to inform consumers about books' content and characteristics (including the books' existence). However, positive reviews have a larger impact on sales than negative reviews, suggesting that reviews also have a persuasive effect.