Taylor Swift has a hard-to-beat list of records and firsts on her resume. She’s been Time’s Person of the Year twice (in 2017 and 2023), her Eras Tour has been named the highest-grossing ever, and she’s scored more American Music Awards than any other artist in history. But don’t expect to see her just-released offering, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book, on the New York Times bestseller list, because the paper’s longstanding restrictions will keep it off the charts.
Swift, once rumored to be the author of the film-companion book Argylle, released her 256-page hardcover book Friday, after an Instagram announcement last month. The book contains “my own personal reflections, never-before-seen behind-the-scenes photos, all the magical memories you guys brought every single night,” Swift wrote as a video spun through some of its pages.
Neither the subject matter nor the book’s focus on photos is keeping it off the Times list, which many in publishing consider the gold standard of a book’s success. Instead, the issue is the distribution model Swift chose for The Eras Tour Book: As Esquire noted last week, Taylor Swift didn’t bother with a traditional publishing house to issue and distribute her book. Instead, she self-published and chose a single retailer, a big box department store, Target, as the sole place people can buy a new copy of the book. Don’t look on Amazon, it’s not there—nor is it at your local independent bookstore, the print media section of Walmart, or any remaining Barnes & Noble locations. It’s Target or bust.
It’s a strategy that benefits Swift’s ongoing efforts to control her creative output and brand. Her decision to release “Taylor’s Versions” of her songs following a dispute over the ownership of her master recordings is well known, and arguably paved the way for her independently distributed documentary, a well-reviewed depiction of the Eras Tour that had the biggest opening weekend for a concert film in history though it was only available in AMC theaters.
Swift’s AMC-only decision for her film had no impact on how box-office trackers noted its success, but the same isn’t true for the Times list. “A title sold exclusively by a single vendor does not qualify for tracking,” a rep for the paper told Esquire, which means that—especially given Swift’s track record—the NYT’s painstakingly compiled rankings might pass over this weekend’s biggest blockbuster.
It’s possible, though, that the Times list might not be as influential as publishers and authors have led us to believe. Speaking with Stanford Business, Alan Sorensen—a professor who studies the impact of bestseller lists on book sales—says that while unknown writers might get a bump from being listed on the NYT list, inclusion makes little difference for sales of books by household names such as Danielle Steele or Stephen King. “It’s free advertising for new authors who make it to the list,” he says, but that’s hardly the case for someone like Swift, who—with all respect to Steele and King—might be one of the best-known names on the planet.
Swift’s exclusion might be good news for the current front-runner on the non-fiction bestseller list, a book penned by another icon of music. Cher: The Memoir Part One is currently in the top slot, its first time on the chart since the book’s release on November 19. But as people order Cher’s book from the comfort of their homes, fans suited up to gather outside Target locations this morning for a first crack at Swift’s story (which Target will offer online as of November 30).
“Yeah, it’s really cold but we’re here to get Taylor Swift’s tour book,” Chicago-area shopper Carlos Miracle told Reuters this morning. “I usually don’t buy anything during the holiday season,” New Jersey Target shopper Amy Webb said from an early-morning line. “But [I] wanted to get my hands on this before it sells out.”
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