14 Nov Wall Street Journal Stops Bestseller List 2023

This has been a year with a lot of changes for authors especially when it comes to bestseller lists.  Wall Street Journal announced their bestseller list has been discontinued.

Other changes in the industry include Amazon limiting the amount of categories that authors can use for their books which also means that they are limited to the number of bestseller lists their book(s) can hit.  Amazon made that change on June 1, 2023.

The most recent change was announced on November 7th, 2023, stating that Wall Street Journal has dropped it’s bestseller list.  This is the end of many years of selecting the top selling business books and providing that list to the public.

There is a lot of speculation right now as to whether or not the Wall Street Journal bestseller list will come back.  I think that the language being used is telling…

In November of 2022, the USA Today bestseller list was paused, however, these announcements specifically used the words:  “hiatus”, “suspends”, and “pauses”.  When it comes to the Wall Street Journal bestseller list, the words being used are very different:  “discontinued”, “ended” and “dropped”.

We have had several clients hit both Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestsellers list in the past; hitting these top tier lists were added credibility for business authors.

So what now?

USA Today bestseller list did come back in 2023, however, they did make some changes:  They no longer have an “ebook only” bestseller list and that is a big deal for self-published authors.  It is easier to sell 5000+ ebooks in one week than it is to sell 5000 hardcover books in one week.

Many self-published authors don’t even publish a hardcover book, so it might be that the big publishers don’t want self published authors hitting these top-tier lists.

For decades traditional publishers were the gatekeepers of the publishing industry until Amazon came along with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and allowed indie authors the opportunity to self publish without a big publishing house.  That changed everything.

Finally, the playing field was leveled and traditional publishers didn’t like it.  Amazon took millions of dollars of their profit and on top of that self-published authors didn’t need them any longer.

I’m wondering if all these changes are an attempt to put traditional publishing houses back in a position of power and leave self published authors out of the equation.

The Wall Street Journal bestseller list and the title of being a bestselling author was added credibility for coaches, speakers, consultants, entrepreneurs and CEO’s.  The USA Today bestseller list was added credibility for all types of authors as the list includes the top 150 books in all categories and genres.

So what’s a self-published author to do?

Keep writing.  Keep publishing.  Keep focusing on sales.  Keep building your email list.  Keep communicating with your authors.  Keep building your author business.  And most importantly, keep diversifying where you publish your books so you don’t become like a good friend of mine who is one of the top business authors that had their KDP randomly shut down by Amazon which impacted his income in a major way as that was his only source of income.  He was able to get his account back up and running, but the damage had been done to the algorithm.  He is now going wide with his books, not putting all his eggs in the “Amazon basket” and will start selling direct to readers as many authors are now doing such as Joanna Penn and Katie Cross.

There will always be challenges, obstacles and problems regardless of what you are trying to achieve, don’t let that stand in the way of your dreams.  Keep letting your voice be heard in the world through your books.  Bestseller list or not.