Two months on the Locus Bestsellers' List

Well, it probably only matters to me, but I feel compelled to note that the SF trade journal Locus has incorrectly listed my novel Mindscan's standing on the bestsellers' list published in that magazine's just-released May issue (and online on the Locus website since last Thursday, April 27, 2006).

This month's Locus paperbacks bestsellers' list (published in the May 2006 issue covering the data period of February 2006) has Mindscan listed as follows:

#6. Mindscan, Robert J. Sawyer (Tor)
Months on list: 1
Last month: -

Although the #6 ranking is presumably correct, the rest of it is not right. This isn't Mindscan's first month on the list in paperback; rather, this is its second. Last month's paperback bestsellers' list (published in April 2006, data period January 2006) had Mindscan as follows:

#9. Mindscan, Robert J. Sawyer (Tor)
Months on list: 1
Last month: -

So, the correct listing this month should be:

#6. Mindscan, Robert J. Sawyer (Tor)
Months on list: 2
Last month: 9

Given how rare it is for books -- especially SF ones -- to make the Locus bestsellers' list for two months in a row, this seems worth noting.

• In the May 2006 list, Locus has only 2 of 11 paperbacks listed as being on for a second consecutive month, both of which are fantasy.
  
  
• In the April 2006 list, Locus has only 3 of 10 paperbacks listed as being on for a second consecutive month, and all are fantasy.
  
  
• In the March 2006 list, only two of 11 paperbacks are on for a second consecutive month, and both are fantasy.
  
  
• In the February 2006 list, only one of 10 paperbacks is on for a second consecutive month, and it's a fantasy.
  
  
• In fact, you have to go back four months, to the January 2006 list, to find another SF paperback that's been on for two consecutive months (S.M. Stirling's Dies The Fire).

Incidentally, Mindscan was also on the Locus bestsellers' list in hardcover, hitting number 4 on the list that was published in the July 2005 issue, covering the data period of April 2005.

The Mindscan hardcover also appeared on the following Canadian bestsellers' lists:

• Saskatoon Star Phoenix, hardcover bestsellers, combined fiction and nonfiction (all genres), April 30, 2005, at #3.
  
  
• Winnipeg Free Press, hardcover fiction (all genres), April 24, 2005, at #6.
  
  
• McNally Robinson, combined chain-wide fiction and nonfiction hardcovers (all genres), April 30, 2005, at #6.
  
  
• McNally Robinson Winnipeg, Fantasy, SF, and Horror hardcovers, April 2005, at #1.
  
  
• McNally Robinson Saskatoon, Fantasy, SF, and Horror hardcovers, April 2005, at #1.

For the full text of those lists, see this entry in my blog archives (hit refresh once the page fully loads if you don't see the right entry).