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Ari Emanuel’s memoir Roll the Calls debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. On the Publishers Weekly list, it didn’t appear at all, after BookScan, the data service behind PW’s rankings, determined that too many of its sales came in bulk.
Roll the Calls was published on Sept. 22 with a buzzy rollout that propelled it to No. 2 on the Times list published online Oct. 1. Naturally, that got a lot of attention in Hollywood. But people who follow the publishing industry closely were waiting for the Publishers Weekly list to drop a few days later. Unlike the New York Times — which compiles its list from sales reported by retailers it doesn’t identify, run through what it calls “proprietary vetting and audit protocols, corroborative reporting and other statistical determinations” — PW bases its list on straight sales numbers from BookScan. The NYT list gets more public attention because of the prestige attached to being a New York Times bestselling author, but most publishing insiders prefer PW’s list for its transparent use of hard data.
When it did, Roll the Calls wasn’t among its top 25 nonfiction titles.
I asked a source with access to BookScan’s data to check the sales of Roll the Calls: 17,397 copies sold during the first week. That should have put it at No. 4 on PW‘s list, just behind the No. 3 title, Happy Snacking, Don’t Die, and ahead of Inside the Owner’s Box: Power and Leadership in Sports. The No. 1 selling book, Charles Spencer’s Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, sold 55,000 copies that week.
I reached out to Publishers Weekly for clarification. PW replied that BookScan deemed Roll the Calls ineligible because “there was a significant percentage of bulk sales that tripped [its] flagging threshold.” A source with knowledge of PW’s list says books are occasionally ruled out like this, but it usually goes unnoticed. Circana, which owns BookScan, didn’t respond to a request for clarification on how the bulk-buying threshold gets tripped, what percentage of Roll the Calls sales were deemed bulk or how often a book is ruled ineligible.
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Comments
Hey, if the practice is good enough for Taylor Swift, it’s good enough for Ari!
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