The New York Times has augmented their children’s bestseller list for the better. They are now separating hardcover middle grade and young adult titles from paperback and e-book bestsellers. This will obviously be beneficial towards young readers, but also authors.
Many YA authors felt that the way the New York Times handled YA books in the past was preventing them from attaining the exulted status as a New York Times Bestseller. This was primarily attributed to paperbacks and hardcovers being intermixed so guys like John Green, Veronica Roth, and Gillian Flynn would dominate the list for almost the entire year.
I think having separation between older titles in paperback form and now hardcovers will allow middle school kids and young adults to discover new authors. It will also give librarians a sense of what is hot, new and trending so they can stock up on the print and e-book edition.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
