Amazon switches up best- seller list tactics

Charts show what people actually read — not just purchase

Amazon introduced a weekly best- seller list that ranks books by what readers are actually reading — not just what they’ve bought.

The new list, called Amazon Charts, also has a most-sold component that incorporates sales of its Kindle e- books and audio, as well as print books.

The Seattle company had long posted lists of most- sold books in the past hour. The weekly lists are new and reflect the increasingly complex trove of data about users’ habits Amazon has available to it from its e- commerce site and other connected apps — including audiobook purveyor Audible, the Good Reads social recommendation service and its Kindle e- books app. The lists also sharpen the rivalry with other best- seller lists, such those at USA TODAY and The New York Times.

Amazon’s “Most Read” list comes from Kindle e- books and Audible audio books and doesn’t include paper books. It ranks books by the average number of daily Kindle read-----

ers and daily Audible listeners each week, whether they are in the process of reading or have completed reading the book in that week, the company said.

So far, Amazon’s Most Read and Most Sold lists are similar but not identical. On this week’s Most Read list for fiction are Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, David Baldacci’s The Fix and Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

The Most Sold list is slightly different. The Handmaid’s Tale is still No. 1, but No. 2 is Paula Hawkins’ Into the Water, and No. 3 is James Patterson’s 16th Seduction.

These are similar to the top three on USA TODAY’s best- seller fiction list, which included Into the Water, 16th Seduction and Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!