Responding to a story in Politico that the New York Times left the new book by Texas Senator, and Republican presidential hopeful, Ted Cruz off of its bestseller list because of “strategic bulk purchases,” publisher HarperCollins said its investigation of the sales patterns of A Time for Truth showed no evidence of bulk orders.
The book, which has been on sale a week (after being published on June 30), appears in the fourth spot on PW's current adult hardcover nonfiction list. The PW list is powered by Nielsen BookScan, which tracks an estimated 80%-85% of print book sales. According to BookScan, the title sold 11,853 copies at outlets that report to the service. A BookScan representative said the company did its "due diligence" on sales of the book and saw no reason why it should not be included on its bestsellers lists. Amazon has also said it saw no indications of bulk buying in sales to its customers.
A look at sales of Truth by geography found that Texans accounted for Cruz's biggest customer base, buying about 27% of all copies sold. Houston and Dallas were particularly strong markets for Cruz, with purchases in those cities accounting for, respectively, 1,395 and 1,359 copies sold.
Outside of Texas, A Time for Truth did well in Atlanta (567 copies sold) and Los Angeles (486 copies sold.). Another strong market was Washington, DC, where the book sold 252 copies.
In its statement to Politico, the NYT spokesperson said the omission of Truth from its list was due to “the overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases.” The NYT has never disclosed precisely which retail outlets contribute the sales data that determine the ranking of titles on its bestseller lists.
This story was updated Monday morning with new information.
