{"id":586947,"date":"2021-07-09T11:51:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T15:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=586947"},"modified":"2021-07-09T11:51:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T15:51:28","slug":"the-big-lie-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-big-lie-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Lie: The New York Times Bestseller List"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-big-lie-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=586947&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-112774802.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Last week, a familiar story played out in the book publishing world. A conservative book outsold every other book in the country \u2014 yet it was mysteriously left off the New York Times&nbsp;bestseller list. I don\u2019t mean it wasn\u2019t #1 on the&nbsp;Times&nbsp;list, I mean&nbsp;<em>it wasn\u2019t on the list at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>This is deja vu all over again for conservatives. During my time at Regnery, we repeatedly experienced The New York Times\u2019 curious definition of \u201cbestselling,\u201d which often resulted in conservative books landing lower on the list, or not on the list at all, despite actual sales.<\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;uses their own secret recipe for curating their bestseller list, a recipe they refuse to disclose, but which appears to rely on sales at reporting stores that perhaps once were, but no longer are, terribly representative of the country\u2019s actual buying behavior. The keepers of the List also use discretion (read, finger on the scale) when factoring in sales at places like Amazon. We were told on more than one occasion that if the percentage of a book\u2019s overall sales at Amazon was \u201ctoo high,\u201d this counted against a book\u2019s chances of making the List.<\/p>\n<p>Not exactly a scientific exercise. Instead, the List is ripe for tampering and manipulation.<\/p>\n<p>Publishing insiders have long known the unreliability of the&nbsp;Times&nbsp;list. Regnery stopped using the Times list four years ago, after a particularly egregious example of bias, and began using the&nbsp;Publishers Weekly&nbsp;list instead. That list is based on Nielson\u2019s Bookscan reporting service, which at least is transparent enough to provide some measure of objective sales data.<\/p>\n<p>In last week\u2019s case, Michael Knowles new book, \u201cSpeechless,\u201d sold more than 17,000 copies according to Bookscan. Which should have earned it the #1 spot on any bestseller list (as it was on the PW list). Instead, the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;put Bill O\u2019Reilly\u2019s history book (\u201cKilling the Mob\u201d) at #1, despite the fact that O\u2019Reilly\u2019s book sold approximately 12,000 copies in the same week.<\/p>\n<p>Now hold on, you might say. Bill O\u2019Reilly is conservative. The&nbsp;Times&nbsp;put him at #1, so clearly they are not biased against conservatives, right?<\/p>\n<p>The truth is more complicated, and more insidious.<\/p>\n<p>First, let\u2019s look at the subject of O\u2019Reilly\u2019s book. It\u2019s not conservative, it\u2019s not even political. It\u2019s about the history of organized crime in America. So, not a big threat to the progressive narrative. Secondly, consider who published the two books: Knowles was published by Regnery, the unapologetically conservative publishing house; O\u2019Reilly\u2019s book was published by St. Martin\u2019s Press, a division of MacMillan Publishers.<\/p>\n<p>I believe this second factor is key, a point driven home by a recent panel discussion at the U.S. Book Show a few weeks ago about \u201cpolitical books in the post-Trump era.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The panelists were quick to distance themselves from any perceived connection with pro-Trump authors or books, and quick to pat themselves on the back for their tolerance and openmindedness. They drew distinctions between \u201ccredible authors\u201d and \u201cones who are not credible.\u201d They also offered this doozey: \u201cwhen major publishers deplatform books by figures like [Sen. Josh] Hawley, they may [be] driving their authors toward fringe publishers that may not rigorously fact-check their books.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The arrogance of that statement is only overshadowed by its hypocrisy. The suggestion that Regnery\u2019s books are less accurate than the books published by a \u201cmajor publisher\u201d is both insulting and a blatant lie; calling Regnery a \u201cfringe publisher\u201d is just plain offensive. And make no mistake, this panelist (who runs a \u201cconservative\u201d imprint at a major publishing house) was taking aim squarely at Regnery and other independent publishers who dare to challenge the narrative peddled by the major houses.<\/p>\n<p>Sitting atop his very high horse, another panelist continued: \u201cYou cannot get away, with a major publisher from the Big 5, with just telling your side of the story\u2026 for those who were in the Trump administration, they\u2019re being pressed in ways they weren\u2019t before about confronting a culture of deceit and conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Give me a break. When Random House published Barrack Obama\u2019s book last year, did they warn him he would not \u201cget away with just telling his side of the story?\u201d When Hillary Clinton told us about all her \u201cHard Choices\u201d did Simon &amp; Schuster press her to confront her own record of deceit?<\/p>\n<p>This is hubris at its most revolting.<\/p>\n<p>Everywhere you turn, the big players in the book world are rewriting history and shaping the narrative to fit their agenda. Bestselling books are not really bestsellers \u2014 if they promote a conservative worldview; publishers are not legitimate publishers \u2014 if they publish authors who challenge the mainstream media version of events (e.g., any question raised about the integrity of the election is now dubbed the \u201cBig Lie\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>Reasonable people can have differences of opinions, even strongly-held different views of what is right and wrong. Publishing outlets&nbsp;<em>should<\/em>&nbsp;review and debate these differences. Books&nbsp;<em>should<\/em>&nbsp;explore the meaning and significance of events, trends, ideas and policies from a variety of viewpoints.<\/p>\n<p>But fact-checking should not be politicized and raw data should not be misrepresented. When 2 + 2 = 5, we are all in trouble.<\/p>\n<p><em>Marji Ross has over 30 years experience in the publishing industry. For nearly two decades, she served as President and Publisher of Regnery Publishing, the nation\u2019s leading publisher of conservative books.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, a familiar story played out in the book publishing world. A conservative book outsold every other book in the country \u2014 yet it was mysteriously left off the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2314341,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-112774802.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"The Big Lie: The New York Times Bestseller List","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-112774802.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"The Big Lie: The New York Times Bestseller List","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}