Research has shown that the New York Times bestseller list is less likely to include works by conservative authors, even if their books sell just as well as their left-leaning counterparts.
analysis Conducted by The Economist magazine They found that books published by conservative presses were 7% less likely to make the Grey Lady’s weekly bestseller list, even if they sold at the same rate as books published by other publishers.
The Economist said that while well-known conservative authors like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck frequently appear on the Times nonfiction bestseller list, lesser-known authors have a harder time making the list.
The magazine found that among books selling fewer than 5,000 copies a week, works by conservative authors were much less likely to make the Times bestseller list.
A study by The Economist found that books that rank in the bottom 10 of the top 25 on a given week’s Publishers Weekly nonfiction bestseller list are 22 percent less likely to appear in a similar position on the Times bestseller list.
The analysis also found that conservative authors whose works appeared on the Times nonfiction bestseller list ranked, on average, 2.3 places lower than other authors with similar sales.
Books that aren’t bestsellers fare even worse, according to The Economist: Books that rank in the bottom five on the Publishers Weekly rankings rank, on average, five places lower on the Times list, the analysis concluded.
Conservative commentator Michael Knowles is the author of the 2021 book “Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds.”
The book sold 17,587 copies in its first week, reaching number one on the Publishers Weekly list. The book continued to sell well in the following weeks.
Despite this, the book failed to make it onto the Times bestseller list.
“The New York Times holds an acceptable type of conservative view,” Knowles told The Economist.
Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary during the George W. Bush administration, is the author of the 2022 book “Oppression, Deception, Snobility and Prejudice.”
The book reached number six on Publishers Weekly’s summer 2022 list of bestselling nonfiction works.
But the book was nowhere to be found on The Times’ list.
“It’s a frustrating feeling, like banging your head against a wall,” Fleischer told The Economist.
Earlier this year, author Rob Henderson’s book “Troubled,” a portrayal of the hypocrisy of America’s elite, was removed from the Times bestseller list, even though it outsold the fourth- and fifth-placed books that week, according to Circana BookScan, which tracks 85% of U.S. print book sales.
Books that sold well but weren’t prominently featured on the Times bestseller list include “Moment of Truth: Rekindling America’s Promise” by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and “American Playbook: A Guide to Taking Back the Country from the Democrats” by commentator Clay Travis.
For authors, the prestige that comes with appearing on the Times bestseller list often translates to increased sales, increased speaking fees, and more favorable terms in future contracts with publishers.
However, the Times has never revealed its methodology for ranking best-selling books.
In March, Tesla CEO Elon Musk slammed the New York Times for “pure propaganda” after Balaji Srinivasan, former chief technology officer of Coinbase and former general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, wrote in X magazine that the bestseller list was “fake.”
Srinivasan, who is also the author of “Network State,” was responding to a lawsuit filed decades ago by “The Exorcist” author William Peter Blatty against the paper for ignoring strong sales figures for his books.
“They were forced in court to admit that it was not a ranking list; it was actually an ‘editorial’ that allowed them to exclude books they didn’t like,” Srinivasan wrote.
Srinivasan wrote in his post: Killzone Blog The book, dedicated to one of the top thriller and mystery writers, details the history of Blatty’s legal battle.
A Times spokesman told The Economist: “The political views of authors or publishers have no bearing on our rankings and do not factor into the ranking of books on the list.”
“There are many organisations with bestseller lists and they all have different methodologies, so it is normal for them to produce different rankings,” the spokesperson added.
The Post has reached out to the Times for comment.
