The New York Times to Launch eBook Best-Seller Lists

Although this doesn't really surprise me, I thought I would report on it nonetheless.  As a lot of you know, I'm an Amazon Kindle owner as well as being an iPod owner.  Both of the devices allow me to read books electronically.  In fact, the iPod has an Amazon app that allows me to read my Kindle books on the iPad.

I haven't read or purchased a book in physical form in at least a couple of years and yet I find myself reading more since I've gone to electronic books than I ever did before I had access to them.  So it should come as no surprise that the New York Times is now going to publish best seller lists for this media.  I mean, this has been a legitimate prime time way to consume books for a while now, but this definitely shows it is a growing medium that is now an official literary powerhouse.  Here is the press release:

Independent Third Party, RoyaltyShare, Inc., Will Help Validate Sales Data

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The New York Times announced today it will publish eBook fiction and nonfiction Best-Seller Lists beginning early 2011.

“The Times is a trusted brand within the book publishing industry and with consumers. As with all The Times’s rankings, these additional lists will benefit from corroborative sourcing and we will watch for trends in the industry.”

Since 1935, The New York Times Best-Seller Lists have been the definitive metric that book publishers and authors have used to judge success. The Times’s eBook Best-Seller Lists are a natural extension of this important franchise as the proliferation of portable devices grows.

“The vibrant growth of digital publishing has created a need for an impartial, reliable source for tracking and reporting the top-selling eBooks across the country,” said Janet Elder, editor of News Surveys for The New York Times. “The Times is a trusted brand within the book publishing industry and with consumers. As with all The Times’s rankings, these additional lists will benefit from corroborative sourcing and we will watch for trends in the industry.”

"The best-seller list is an essential part of the Book Review, and we're excited we'll be able to give readers newer and more complete information," said Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review.

The rankings will reflect sales aggregated from a growing number of online service providers who sell eBooks to consumers. To further secure the integrity of the rankings, The Times is aggressively developing a means of processing and displaying the information necessary, and of verifying the data provided.

The Times has entered into a relationship with an independent third party, RoyaltyShare, Inc., whose unique, Web-based software platform will be used by the staff of The New York Times Best Seller Lists to help validate eBooks sales data received from various sources.

As new devices continue to captivate readers, the eBook category has seen tremendous growth. The Association of American Publishers recently reported that eBook sales for the first eight months of the year were up more than 190 percent, generating nine percent of total consumer book sales.

The lists will appear in The New York Times Book Review both in print and online editions. Rankings will reflect sales for the week at many venues where a wide range of general interest eBooks are sold nationwide. These include independent book retailers; national, regional and local chains; and online and multimedia entertainment retailers.

About The New York Times Company

The New York Times Company, a leading media company with 2009 revenues of $2.4 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers and more than 50 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.