The New York Times blocked Ted Cruz’s book A Time For Truth from its bestsellers list even as sales of hard cover copies of the biography reached 11,854 during its first week on shelves.
Politico reported Thursday that HarperCollins, which published the book, sent a letter to the Times asking about the biography’s absence from the bestsellers list for the week ending in July 4. The Times responded that the biography didn’t meet its standards.
A Time for Truth, published on June 30, sold more copies in one week than have titles from Cruz’s fellow GOP presidential candidates Rand Paul and Marco Rubio in one and six months, respectively. Cruz’s book also beats all titles save two on the forthcoming Times’ list in terms of sales.
However, Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said when questioned about the decision, "We have uniform standards that we apply to our best seller list, which includes an analysis of book sales that goes beyond simply the number of books sold. This book didn’t meet that standard this week."
"Our goal is that the list reflect authentic best sellers, so we look at and analyze not just numbers, but patterns of sales for every book," she added, later clarifying that there was an "overwhelming preponderance of evidence" that sales of Cruz’s biography were "limited to strategic bulk purchases."
While Cruz’s book might not see recognition on the Times’ bestsellers list, Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices appeared on the publication’s hardcover nonfiction bestsellers list for 13 straight weeks, debuting in 2014 on the June 29 edition at No. 1 after hitting shelves June 10, despite the fact that the former secretary of state’s biography was assessed by experts to be a bomb.
Clinton's book appeared at No. 1 two weeks in a row and in the No. 2 spot in its third week on the list despite the fact that sales of hardcover copies dropped 44 percent and 46 percent in its second and third weeks, respectively.