BookScan: an obsession with bestsellers? | Book News

Nielsen BookScan Feathers are getting ruffled across the ditch by the arrival of the über-sales-tracker, BookScan.

BookScan has already made a huge impact in the US and UK, because it allows booksellers to see immediately what’s hot and what’s not.

The downside, according to some in the book trade, is that the short-term focus of BookScan statistics distorts the market. It boosts fast-selling mass-market books but damages ‘literary’ titles, which tend to rely on slow, sustained sales.

If a bookseller sees that Jenny Pattrick is going through the roof but Emily Perkins is going through the floor, so the theory goes, the bookseller will immediately attempt to hitch a ride on the Pattrick bandwagon by promoting Pattrick’s books and dropping Perkins.

There are holes in these arguments. A lot of literary fiction is sold through independent bookshops that are not hooked up to BookScan, so the figures are not accurate. Critics of BookScan also assume that books appearing on bestseller lists tend to sell more: but we can’t see how the appearance of the latest Jo Seagar cookbook is going to hammer sales of the latest Bill Manhire poetry collection. If Dan Brown is in the ascendant, then John Grisham may decline, but they are competing for the same mass-market dollar.

Still, BookScan is likely to shake thing up in the Australian book market, and fur is already flying. The Australian ran two articles on the subject on Saturday, a brief notice here and a lengthier analysis here.

We’re wondering how long it is before New Zealand gets the BookScan treatment. We’re certainly not the fourth biggest book market after the US, the UK and Australia, but it wouldn’t be too hard to export the Australian BookScan operation to NZ.

24 Jul 06 | Filed by Chris | Add your comment (3 so far)

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Comment by Stephen ~ July 25, 2006 8:11 AM

Sounds like the old argument between literary and commercial fiction. In the end, booksellers have to pay the bills, and if it weren't for the popular works-the mass market-there'd be scant literary works in print.

Comment by fergus ~ July 25, 2006 7:47 PM

I think I heard it said during Sunday's Booksellers NZ conference that BookScan would be here by Christmas. The hold-up has been Whitcoulls' reluctance to provide data. They hold such a large share of the NZ market that without them BookScan figures would have little meaning, but because it is such a large share they are afraid their figures would be transparent to competitors (such as The Warehouse).

There is no doubt that BookScan will be a godsend for those who regard books as product (as all publishers must, to some degree, if they're to run successful businesses). But there is also no doubt that it will be bad for those who regard books as art, because it will push all the interesting books even further into the margins.

Comment by Darryl ~ July 25, 2006 9:44 PM

Sounds like something I'm against - even without fully understanding it. I would have thought the industry would have already been doing this sort of thing.

But any word on the Montanas, people? Maurice Gee - snooze. Of course he's a fine fine writer but he's been spinning his wheels for years. At least he has wheels - Owen Marshall, oh no. Up on blocks. Fiona Kidman? Excuse me but I spent some time in Australia and they have Kate Grenville. Elizabeth Knox is incredibly talented but surely not in the running here. (And I don't like dreams.) Nigel Cox? Just finished it. A funny sort of book - didn't really believe the crime plot but I totally believed the feeling, the emotions of the characters and some scenes were gorgeous - really vivid and memorable. It all looks so simple in Responsibility but actually it's hard. In Blindsight, it all looks so hard but it's actually very simple - and preachy. If that makes any sense. So you have my vote - different from the judges.

Islander - I'd love to hear your opinions on the fiction.

Finally: so Bill Manhire's poetry could have beaten Gee to the top prize? Has this ever happened before? Maybe it would have been too much for BookScan.