Tracking the top titles.
August 31, 2010 7:56 AM Subscribe
What sales figures for books are needed to constitute "bestseller" status in Mainland China?
When popular books such as novels are published in China, both in Chinese and as translations of foreign books, what sales figures are generally regarded as constituting "bestseller" status?
At 1.3 billion, the population of Mainland China is an order of magnitude larger than that of many countries, and four times that of the US. I realize that a lower rate of literacy in comparison to the US and UK, a largely rural population, distribution complexities, and government censorship mean that the effective readership population is less than sheer numbers might suggest it to be. Still, you'd think that the sales figures needed to vault a novel to the bestseller lists would be substantially higher than they are in the United States.
How does the Chinese media calculate bestseller status? Is there a bestseller tracking list equivalent to the NY Times Bestseller list? If so, what numeric sales figures are generally required to appear on it? How do these figures compare with bestseller sales performance in the US or UK?
When popular books such as novels are published in China, both in Chinese and as translations of foreign books, what sales figures are generally regarded as constituting "bestseller" status?
At 1.3 billion, the population of Mainland China is an order of magnitude larger than that of many countries, and four times that of the US. I realize that a lower rate of literacy in comparison to the US and UK, a largely rural population, distribution complexities, and government censorship mean that the effective readership population is less than sheer numbers might suggest it to be. Still, you'd think that the sales figures needed to vault a novel to the bestseller lists would be substantially higher than they are in the United States.
How does the Chinese media calculate bestseller status? Is there a bestseller tracking list equivalent to the NY Times Bestseller list? If so, what numeric sales figures are generally required to appear on it? How do these figures compare with bestseller sales performance in the US or UK?
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posted by valkyryn at 8:32 AM on August 31, 2010