One title that will be noticeably absent from The New York Times’ upcoming bestsellers list is Senator Ted Cruz’s new book, “A Time for Truth.”
The New York Times confirmed to the book’s publisher, HarperCollins, that they are excluding Cruz’s book from the bestsellers list, despite stellar sales numbers, Politico’s Dylan Byers first reported. Cruz’s new book sold 11,854 copies in its first week, more than “all but two of the Times' bestselling titles,” according to the report.
By Byers' estimation, the strong sales would land Cruz the No. 3 spot.
In response to an inquiry about the omission from HarperCollins, The New York Times claimed “A Time for Truth” didn’t meet the “standard” for the list this week. The Times also argued they take more into account than just book sales.
More from Politico’s On Media blog:
"We have uniform standards that we apply to our best seller list, which includes an analysis of book sales that goes beyond simply the number of books sold," Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy explained when asked about the omission. "This book didn't meet that standard this week."
Asked to specify those standards, Murphy replied: "Our goal is that the list reflect authentic best sellers, so we look at and analyze not just numbers, but patterns of sales for every book."
Both HarperCollins and the Cruz campaign declined to comment on the matter.
The response on Twitter was brutal towards the Times:
Read the full report here.
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