‘BONKERS’

James Patterson Lays Into New York Times Over Bestseller List Omission

The author accused the newspaper of “cooking the books.”

Author James Patterson has questioned the validity of The New York Times bestseller list after his latest work wasn’t included. Patterson, 76, tweeted last week a letter he said he wrote to the Times “about them cooking the books on their best seller lists.” In the letter, Patterson raised doubts about the accuracy of the list after his book Walk the Blue Line initially failed to be included despite outselling all but three of the 15 books on the list, according to data from BookScan, adding that the Times’ selection methodolgy is “bonkers.” The writer told Fox News on Sunday that failing to make the list denies an author “more sales” and “publicity.” “We responded to Mr. Patterson to let him know that we take his concerns seriously and are always reviewing our methods in compiling the Best-Seller Lists to ensure that we are best serving our readers,” a spokesperson for the Times told OutKick. The spokesperson added that in the last 15 years, “Mr. Patterson’s books have ranked on our Best-Seller lists over 4,000 times.”