Regnery Publishing–the publisher behind conservative talking heads like Dinesh D’Souza, Ann Coulter, and Laura Ingraham–announced today that it will no longer recognize the “New York Times Best-Seller” list, reports the Associated Press.
What does that mean? Not much. It’s more of a publicity stunt. The Times doesn’t have relationships with individual publishers to figure out who does and does not get on these lists. It surveys retailers each week about their book sales and uses that data to figure out which books make the cut. Regnery, specifically, seems to be miffed that D’Souza’s new book, The Big Lie, is not higher up on the list. (Right now, it’s at No. 10 on the hardcover nonfiction list).
This announcement, however, doesn’t mean that Regnery titles will no longer be on the NYT’s list. As long as books are published, the Times will still attempt to calculate which ones are selling faster–and its findings may differ from other best-seller lists. But Regnery is using this as a way to pander to its base about the mainstream media’s perceived liberal bias. According to the Times, bias doesn’t affect who shows up in its rankings. “Conservative authors have routinely ranked high and in great numbers on our lists. Many conservative authors were on the list in the month of August,” a spokesperson told Fast Company via email. (It should also be noted, that despite the hysteria, The Big Lie continues to be on two top 10 Times lists.)
But perhaps outrage will help sell more books. And if that happens, maybe The Big Lie will climb to the top–in which case, mission accomplished.
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