I'm on the list.

Sunday's Washington Post [reg. req.] has an unfortunately tedious overview of bestseller lists, revealing again that they're hardly the accurate barometers of book sales that most of us presume. That making a list is so important to authors and publishers only reinforces the need for a variety of lists using a variety of investigative methods. Though bestseller status may only influence a small fraction of book-buying decisions (from the consumer's point of view), it also effects where huge chunks of cash go (from the publishers' and agents' points of view) for subsequent books and marketing.