Figure 3

Comparison of the NYTBL statistics and first year sales. The distribution of the number of copies sold in a year for all hardcover bestsellers in (A) fiction and (B) nonfiction. The relation between one year sales and the best rank of the book in NYTBL (C) for fiction and (D) for nonfiction. The relation between one year sales and the length of stay on NYTBL (E) for fiction and (F) for nonfiction. Most hardcover bestsellers sell between 10,000 and 100,000 copies in their first year for both fiction and nonfiction, and the higher they get in the list and the longer they stay on, the more copies they sell in a year