Publisher’s Marketplace reports this today:

On and Off Again
The NYT raised a few eyebrows last week after the unusual dispatch of two different versions of its weekly e-mail providing advance release of the bestseller lists dated October 31. The first version incorrectly listed DON’T THINK OF AN ELEPHANT, credited to Howard Dean and Don Hazen with Ballantine listed as the publisher, at No. 30 on the extended paperback nonfiction list. (Dean wrote the foreword and Hazen contributed an introduction; the author is linguist George Lakoff, and the publisher is Chelsea Green.)

At least a few eyebrows remained raised when a second, corrected version of the list dropped the title entirely, with the paperback of Thomas Cahill’s SAILING THE WINE-DARK SEA moving onto the list at No. 35.

When Chelsea Green publisher Margo Baldwin contacted the NYT, they told her the book had been recategorized for tracking on their “advice/how-to/miscellaneous” list. After challenging the recategorization multiple times (a political book, it provides “advice” in the sense of what Amazon calls “recommendations for how the progressive movement can regain semantic equity by repositioning their arguments.” Baldwin’s appeals apparently ended with NYT staffer Rich Meislen, who told Baldwin via e-mail, “Having looked through the book, I think it’s correctly categorized…. I appreciate your concern, but people of good will can disagree, and we disagree on this one.”

Don’t Think of an Elephant appeared on my store’s bestseller list weeks ago and I had no idea what the book was when I saw the title. I was familiar with George Lakoff and the publisher Chelsea Green, but had never heard of the book. A lof of students ordered it, so I assumed it was for a class (shows you what I know). But I finally went and looked at the book on the shelf (yes, I judge a lot of books without having seen them) and I am surprised that the NYT recategorized the book as “advice/how-to/miscellaneous”. Most of what appears on that list is straightforward self-help and diet stuff. The first few books this week are He’s Just Not That Into You, The South Beach Diet and The Purpose Driven Life. The Lakoff book is not any of these. It’s political commentary. I don’t know what they are thinking. And the NYT staffer’s email….I’ll be polite and not say what I am thinking here.