NY Times keeps Sen Cruz off bestseller list

The New York Times informed HarperCollins that it will not include Sen Ted Cruz's (R-TX) new biography on its forthcoming bestsellers list, despite the fact that the book has sold more copies in its first week than all but two of the Times' bestselling titles. Sen Cruz's "A Time For Truth," published on June 30, sold 11,854 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen Bookscan's hardcover sale numbers. That's more than 18 of the 20 titles that will appear on the bestseller list for the week ending July 4.

Apparently the week of July 6, HarperCollins, the book's publisher, sent a letter to The New York Times inquiring about Sen Cruz's omission from the list. The Times responded by telling HarperCollins that the book did not meet their criteria for inclusion. "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." Murphy e-mailed late on July 9 to further clarify the reasoning behind the Times decision: "In the case of this book, the overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases," she wrote.