New York Times to rank ebook bestsellers

The New York Times will begin to publish bestseller lists counting down the most popular fiction and nonfiction titles across the ebook platform, a reflection of the growing impact of digital publishing efforts on the media landscape. According to the NYT, it will compile the ebook bestseller lists according to data supplied weekly by publishers, chain and independent booksellers, online retailers and other sources. The newspaper said it's spent two years creating a system that reliably tracks and verifies ebook sales--it has published bestseller lists for print titles since 1935.

Bolstered by rising demand for devices like Amazon.com's Kindle and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad as well as a host of ereader applications from smartphones, ebook sales have exploded in 2010. During the first nine months of the year, ebook sales topped $304.6 million according to data issued by the Association of American Publishers--during the first three quarters of 2009, ebooks generated sales totaling $105.6 million. Earlier this year, Amazon said it now sells 143 Kindle ebooks for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcover titles for which there is no corresponding Kindle edition.

For more:
- read this New York Times article

Related articles:
Amazon to introduce Kindle ebook sharing
Verizon preloads Amazon Kindle app across Android devices
Amazon slashes Kindle ereader price to $189