Ep. 178: Behind the Scenes of Amazon's Best Books Lists with Al Woodworth, Senior Editor & Manager of Amazon Books Editorial + Book Recommendations
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.9 • 732 Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2024
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 178, Al Woodworth, Senior Editor and Manager at Amazon Books Editorial, goes behind the scenes of Amazon’s editorial division, including the start-to-finish process of building the “Best Books” lists, what “best” might mean, and what helps a book make the list. Plus, Al shares some of her book recommendations!
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CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog.
Highlights
- How Al fits reading into her busy weekly schedule
- The start to finish process of building the Amazon “Best of” lists
- How Amazon balances genre diversity in their “Best of” lists
- What “best” means to Amazon’s editorial team
- Publication date criteria for the Best Books of the Month and Year lists
- How the team discusses, votes, and makes decisions for the lists
- Whether sales numbers influence the year-end list
- How Amazon’s editorial team handles publisher influence
- What 2024 looks like so far for Al and the editorial team
Al’s Book Recommendations [38:26]
Two OLD Books She Loves
- Horse by Geraldine Brooks | Amazon | Bookshop.org [38:39]
- Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe | Amazon | Bookshop.org [40:20]
- Other Books Mentioned
- Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe [41:32]
Two NEW Books She Loves
- James by Percival Everett | Amazon | Bookshop.org [42:05]
- There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak | Amazon
| Bookshop.org [44:18]
One Book She DIDN’T Love
- Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff | Amazon | Bookshop.org [46:21]
One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About
- The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (Nov 19) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [48:54]
- Other Books Mentioned:
Last 5-Star Book Al Read
- There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak | Amazon
- Other Books Mentioned:
- John Lewis: A Life by David Greenberg (Oct 8) [52:26]
Books From Our Discussion
- All the Worst Humans by Phil Elwood [9:25]
- The Wedding People by Alison Espach [14:54]
- Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie [18:05]
- All the Broken Places by John Boyne [18:11]
- All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker [19:38]
- James by Percival Everett [21:40]
- Educated by Tara Westover [22:07]
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver [24:09]
- Spare by Prince Harry [25:25]
- The Testaments by Margaret Atwood [31:13]
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood [31:25]
- The 9/11 Commission Report by National Commission on Terrorist Attacks [31:34]
About Al Woodworth
More about Amazon Book Review
Website | Instagram | X | Facebook
Al Woodworth is a Senior Editor on the Amazon Books Editorial team and has spent more than ten years in the book industry, championing authors and their work. She’s never without a book or four in her bag and is happiest reading memoirs and literary fiction, especially sprawling stories that cross generations and countries. She lives in Brooklyn.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. |
| 0:11.9 | I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. |
| 0:13.8 | Join me every other week as we get real and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. |
| 0:19.3 | Sometimes I'm joined by one of my co-hosts, Catherine, |
| 0:22.0 | from Gilmer Guide to Books, or Susie from Novel Visits. Other times, I talk with a bookish guest, |
| 0:28.4 | including authors and publishing insiders who give us a behind-the-scenes peek into different |
| 0:33.4 | corners of the book world. But always, we're bringing you great book recommendations in every |
| 0:39.3 | single episode. Let's get rolling. I personally am so curious about how many traditional media |
| 0:45.5 | outlets best books lists are put together. And I know y'all are too, judging by our recent |
| 0:50.9 | survey results. So I'm thrilled to welcome Al Woodworth, senior editor and manager |
| 0:55.8 | of the Amazon Books Editorial to the podcast. We're going to go behind the scenes of Amazon's |
| 1:00.8 | editorial division and talk about how they put together their best books list. Al has spent |
| 1:06.1 | more than 10 years in the book industry championing authors in their work. She's never without a book or four |
| 1:11.5 | in her bag and his happiest reading memoirs and literary fiction, especially sprawling stories |
| 1:16.4 | that cross generations and countries. And she lives in Brooklyn. Welcome, Al. Thanks so much for |
| 1:21.5 | having me, Sarah. I'm so excited to talk to you. Best Books List has been a topic I have been |
| 1:26.5 | wanting to go behind the scenes of for a very |
| 1:28.9 | long time. So I was so happy when your team reached out. No, yeah. I mean, the Best Books List, |
| 1:34.5 | it's always so much fun to put together. And I have been at Amazon for a really long time and read for |
| 1:41.1 | the editorial team sort of as a volunteer. And so always enamored with their list |
| 1:46.6 | and what this team does. So excited to chat with you about it all. Can you tell us a bit about your |
| 1:51.9 | role? Like what does an Amazon books editorial manager do? Sure. So our team, I'll start there. |
... |
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