The Myth of the "Best Seller": More Like "Pretty Decent Seller".

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The term “best seller” is a bit of a fib. Because if you think about it logically which I rarely do, but let’s pretend there can only be one best seller. That’s what “best” means. It’s not “quite good” or “pretty decent” or “sold a few copies to your mum and her book club.” It’s best. The top. The numero uno. The Beyoncé of books.

But then you look at the bestseller list and it’s got loads of books on it. Ten, twenty, sometimes more. All of them apparently “best.” That’s like saying everyone in a race came first, except some came first slightly later than the others. Which is just running, really.

So what we’ve got is a list of “good sellers,” masquerading as “best sellers,” like a group of middle managers all calling themselves CEO. And the ones lower down the list? They’re not the best. They’re not even better. They’re just “better than worse,” which is technically still worse.

It’s marketing, innit? They slap “best seller” on a book so you’ll buy it, thinking it’s the literary equivalent of sliced bread. But really, it’s just the bread. Not even toasted. Just sitting there, being bread, hoping someone will pick it up and say, “Ooh, this looks best.”

In conclusion, the only true best seller is the one at the top. The rest are just trying their best. Which is nice. But also a bit sad. Like a hamster in a tiny jumper. Ambitious, but ultimately trapped.



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