The Insider Guide to NYT, USA Today, and More

Book reporting can feel like a black box: numbers go in, lists come out, and most authors are left wondering what actually happened in between. Most people assume bestseller lists are just a scoreboard of raw sales; they are not. With over 20 years as a reporting bookseller, BookPal has seen up close how sales are tracked, how lists are built, and what really moves the needle with book launch strategies. To pull back the curtain, we sat down with our president, Tony DiCostanzo, to ask him the questions most first-time authors are secretly Googling. In this conversation, you will see how book reporting actually works and what prelaunch efforts can meaningfully improve your chances with the major bestseller lists.

Act I: What is book reporting?

What is ‘book reporting’ and why does it matter for authors?

Book reporting is the mechanism for tracking book sales. Most often, people think about it in the context of bestseller lists, like the New York Times or USA Today, because authors want their sales reported correctly to have a shot at hitting those lists. But reporting is also a fundamental factor when negotiating book deals with traditional publishers, because it shows what’s selling and what consumers actually want. Altogether, book reporting is about capturing either the total sales for a book or the sales that count toward specific lists.

What are the major U.S. bestseller lists and how do they differ?

The main list everyone considers the gold standard is the New York Times. It has huge name recognition, has been around a long time, and carries a lot of weight. Next to that is USA Today, which is also a major list authors aim for, but it works very differently.

The New York Times print edition typically shows about 10 books per category, and online, you’ll see up to 15 titles. USA Today, on the other hand, ranks around 150 titles on a single overall list. So the New York Times is much more selective and more editorial; it is not just about raw volume. USA Today has more of a pure volume component simply because it features more books.

Beyond those two, there are other lists and charts that matter in specific ways: trade lists like Publishers Weekly, regional and independent bookstore lists, and retailer-driven rankings such as Amazon charts. Those additional lists can be powerful for visibility and social proof, but when most authors talk about “hitting a list,” they are usually thinking about the New York Times and USA Today.

Which reporting data services matter most, and how do they interact with each other?

Because of the way the industry works, BookScan is effectively the default scoreboard. It is the primary data source that publishers, agents, and reporting booksellers like BookPal use to see how books are performing week to week. BookPal reports into the major lists and uses BookScan data every week, so we see in real time how different campaigns actually translate into reported sales.

On top of that, each major list has its own reporting panel and methodology. The New York Times builds its lists from a confidential sample of retailers and wholesalers and then applies its own editorial judgment to decide what appears and where. USA Today combines sales data from a wide mix of online, chain, and independent outlets into a single overall ranking, rather than splitting by format or category. Other industry lists, such as those from Publishers Weekly and various trade groups, are built directly on BookScan feeds. The Wall Street Journal previously ran BookScan-powered lists as well, but discontinued them in late 2023, which is why you may still see older advice that references the WSJ list.

In practice, there is a lot of overlap between the accounts that feed BookScan and the accounts that feed the lists. That is why strong, diversified BookScan numbers tend to correlate with better odds across multiple lists. As a reporting bookseller, BookPal is wired into both worlds: our sales flow into BookScan and into the specific lists we report to, which gives us a clear line of sight into how your launch activity is actually showing up in the data.

 

Act II: How does book reporting work?

How do reporting windows work (preorders, pub week, subsequent weeks)?

It’s interesting because, unlike music, where you have platinum albums once you hit a million sales, there’s nothing like that in the book world. In publishing, everything operates on a week-to-week basis, with one big exception: the first week of sales.

In the U.S., books are almost always published on Tuesdays. The lists ask reporting booksellers not to submit any sales until the Monday following publication. That means all preorders—sometimes six or seven months’ worth—roll up into that first week. So everything preordered up through Monday, plus all sales from publication day Tuesday through Saturday at midnight, will be combined and reported the following Monday as your ‘preorder + pub week’ total.

That’s the only time an author can aggregate sales across a long period to hit a list, which is why so many books land on a list in week one and then drop off. They’ve essentially front-loaded six months of demand into that first week. That’s also why building momentum for subsequent weeks is so important.

How do formats (hardcover, paperback, ebook, audio) affect list eligibility and reporting?

There are lists that are specific to format, mostly within the New York Times realm. You’ll see a hardcover fiction list, and then a separate paperback list, for example. USA Today, on the other hand, aggregates formats; it combines hardcover and paperback together and doesn’t really differentiate between them.

Most of the major lists still lean heavily on physical book sales. Some do factor in ebook and, to a lesser extent, audio, but if you are aiming for list impact, your launch plan should be built primarily around print.

What’s the role of geographic diversity and retailer diversity in list placement?

It is less about where a book lands on the list and more about whether it qualifies to be on the list at all. In broad strokes, there are four things that help explain how a book becomes eligible:

1. Overall volume for the reporting week
2. How well sales are spread geographically across the U.S.
3. How diversified sales are across retailers
4. A healthy balance of individual versus bulk sales that reflects genuine reader demand

On the geographic side, the lists do not want to see sales hyper-concentrated in just a few cities. They are looking for a healthy spread of interest across the country, including the so-called flyover states, so the books they feature reflect a broad, diversified readership.

Retailer diversity works the same way. It is stronger for a book to show meaningful activity across a mix of outlets—independent bookstores, chains, online retailers, and special-market accounts—rather than being driven almost entirely by a single source.

That is why it is so important to plan campaigns that drive demand nationwide and across multiple reporting retailers. It is one of the key areas where we help authors shape their launch strategy.

What’s the relationship between list “rank” and total units sold? Why don’t high quantities guarantee list placement?

The lists are editorial in nature, not purely sales-driven. That shows up in two main ways. First, a book has to qualify based on the list’s editorial discretion. Second, even among qualifying books, they can arbitrarily decide, ‘We want this book at position four instead of position eight,’ and move it up. So ultimately, it’s an editorial list, not a strict units-sold ranking, though quantity definitely still matters.

Are bulk sales reported differently from individual sales? 

At a technical level, a sale is a sale. Both bulk and individual units can flow through the same reporting systems that the lists look at. Where things get more nuanced is how that demand is routed and how much of your total volume is coming from bulk versus individual readers.

Most lists want to see clear evidence of broad, organic reader demand, not a campaign driven almost entirely by a single large buyer. As a rough benchmark, we often talk about an eighty–twenty balance: roughly 80 percent of your reported sales coming from individual purchases across multiple retailers and about 20 percent from bulk.

There are smarter and less smart ways to handle bulk so orders are processed in line with publisher policies and list guidelines, and show up cleanly in the data. That is where a reporting partner like BookPal adds real value: we can help you think through how to structure and time corporate, event, and special orders so they support, rather than undermine, your long-term list and sales goals.

  

Act III: What are the best strategies for hitting the bestseller lists?

If you had to map out an ideal list-hitting launch strategy, what should the focus be at T-6 months, T-90 days, T-30 days, and publishing week?

Ultimately, as exciting as the book market is, it is also a very crowded space. So at T-6 months, the first move is to get clear on your goals and your competitive landscape. Are you aiming for a major list, or primarily for long term sales and speaking? What other books in your category are slated to launch in the same window? That is when you map out your overall strategy, which I tend to put into two buckets: spearfishing and net fishing. Spearfishing is about highly targeted sales into known pockets of demand; net fishing is about reaching larger, broader audiences. For list goals, you need both.

From about T-90 days, if you want to build real list potential, you start engineering demand into the channels that actually report. That is when you roll out preorder incentives like bundles, bonus content, or early access that give readers a reason to order now instead of waiting, and you point that energy toward retailers whose sales feed BookScan and the major lists. You are essentially stacking the deck for that first reporting week.

At T-30 days, your visibility efforts should hit full stride. Podcasts go live, articles and guest pieces start to land, newsletter swaps and partnerships kick in. The key here is not just attention for its own sake, but attention that drives preorders and early orders into a mix of retailers and geographies, so the demand shows up where the lists are watching.

Then, publishing week is about concentrated, high-energy activity inside the reporting window. Book signings, launch events, corporate or association buys that have been teed up in advance, live and virtual appearances, all aimed at driving as much clean demand as possible into that Tuesday through Saturday period. When you have mapped things well, you are not scrambling that week; you are executing a plan that has been building for months.

Every book and author platform is different, which is why launch plans have to be tailored to your audience, positioning, and goals. The common thread is that strong launches line up story, timing, and sales channels with how reporting actually works, instead of treating the lists as a mystery or an afterthought.

If you want to go deeper on general launch tactics beyond list strategy, we’ve also put together a separate guide on ways to market your book that pairs well with this conversation

What’s the toughest misconception you routinely have to correct?

One of the biggest misconceptions I see is that bestseller simply means volume and that all volume is equal. The nuance, as we have been talking about, is that the major lists are really looking for a healthy balance between individual consumer demand and larger institutional support.

For many business and nonfiction authors, bulk is not a side note; it is a critical part of the ecosystem. Friends and colleagues want to support the launch. Clients and associations want to put the book in the hands of their teams. Companies want books for conferences, workshops, and client gifts. Those bulk purchases are incredibly valuable for impact, visibility, and long-term momentum.

At the same time, the lists are trying to avoid a very specific problem: an affluent author, a sponsor, or a single company simply buying a book onto the list with one giant order. So they are looking for patterns that show broad individual reader interest, not just one or two oversized buys.

A helpful way to think about it is this: during a major push, you want the majority of reported sales coming from individual readers, with bulk making up a meaningful but smaller share. Roughly an eighty–twenty balance, with eighty percent coming from individual purchases and twenty percent from bulk, keeps you aligned with the spirit of what the lists are trying to measure.

Where a partner like BookPal comes in is helping you live in that tension in a smart way. We want your supporters, clients, and event hosts to be able to order confidently in larger quantities. At the same time, we help you think through how those orders fit into the overall campaign so that reporting stays clean, aligned with publisher and list guidelines, and does not create problems for you down the road.

In other words, bulk is not the enemy of hitting a list. Done thoughtfully, it is one of the engines that gets books into the right hands, drives word of mouth, and supports a launch that is built on real reader demand rather than short-term list manipulation.

For a debut or first-time author, what common time-waster should they avoid? What goals should they be focused on?

For debut authors, the biggest time-waster is chasing activity that looks exciting but doesn’t actually build an audience you can reach again. It is very easy to burn months and a lot of money on one-off tactics—random PR hits, speaking at the wrong events, a launch party that feels good in the moment—but never come away with a bigger group of people who actually want your ideas.

The most valuable thing you can build is a real tribe: people who are genuinely interested in your content and want to stay connected to you. That could be clients, peers in your industry, people who hear you speak, or readers who find you through podcasts and social. If they just have a one-time touch with you and then disappear, it is a missed opportunity.

So the primary goal early on is to turn those moments of attention into an ongoing relationship. Practically, that means focusing on:

• Growing an email list or community you control
  
  
• Showing up consistently with useful content that reinforces why they followed you in the first place
  
  
• Using speaking, podcasts, social, and client work to feed that same core audience instead of scattering your efforts everywhere
  
  

When you do that well, everything else gets easier. Your launch is not just a burst of noise around pub week; you are bringing a warm, engaged group of people to the book. That is what drives real sales, supports bulk opportunities with aligned organizations, and gives you a foundation for book two, three, and beyond.

Why should authors partner with BookPal for support with their book launch?

For most authors, the hardest part is not writing the book; it is managing everything that happens when people actually start ordering it. Friends and clients want to buy in bulk. Companies want books for events. Your publisher has its own systems. Retailers have theirs. Somewhere in the middle, someone has to make sure those orders are placed correctly, reported correctly, and show up on time.

That is the space BookPal lives in every day.

As a reporting bookseller with more than twenty years in the market and tens of millions of books sold, we sit at a point in the ecosystem most people never see. We understand how sales are tracked, how different retailers report, how bulk fits into that picture, and where campaigns accidentally create list friction instead of helping. That vantage point lets us advise authors on both strategy and execution, not just take orders.

Practically, that shows up in three ways.

First, we make bulk simple and reliable. If your client wants 50 copies sent to three offices, or an association needs 1,000 copies at a conference venue by a specific date, we handle it. We source the books, coordinate with publishers and distributors, manage shipping and timelines, and keep you in the loop so you are not stuck chasing tracking numbers or solving last-minute crises. The goal is straightforward: the right quantity, in the right place, at the right time, without you having to become your own fulfillment department.

Second, we help you pressure-test your launch plan against how reporting actually works. That can include looking at how your bulk opportunities, preorder pushes, and event sales fit together, whether the mix of channels and timing supports your list goals, and where there may be blind spots. Many companies charge separately for this kind of strategic guidance. For authors we support with bulk orders, those conversations, reporting guidance, and launch reviews are included as part of working with us.

Third, we stay focused on the long game. For many authors, the biggest payoff comes after publication week in the form of speaking, ongoing bulk programs, and future books. Because we handle so many corporate, education, and event-driven orders, we can help you build and sustain those programs so the book continues to move months and years after launch.

On top of that, I am not only BookPal’s founder. I am also active as a literary agent, a speaking agent, and a publisher. That cross-industry perspective means when we talk about your launch, we are thinking about more than a single shipment or a single week. We are looking at how list strategy, bulk sales, and reporting choices affect your broader platform, reputation, and next book.

Authors have friends, clients, and organizations that want to support them in meaningful ways. Our role is to make it easy for those supporters to buy books in volume, while keeping the overall plan aligned with how the industry and the lists actually work—and to provide that strategic guidance as a complementary part of the relationship, not an upsell.

 

If you are getting ready to launch, or even just thinking ahead to your next book, our team is here to help. Connect with us, and we can review your current plan, flag any reporting blind spots, and help structure bulk purchases and campaigns that support your long-term goals, not just pub week. For authors we support with bulk, that strategic guidance is included as part of the relationship.