It’s that time again! Before I unveil the Top Ten, let’s go over a few of the ground rules, shall we?

1) This list only tracks sales through AMAZON. It does not keep track of sales through Barnes and Noble, face-to-face or anything else!
2) This list only tracks PRINT sales. We do not currently track e-books. Exactly how Amazon calculates these things is mostly a trade secret and they vary wildly from day to day. If I checked this tomorrow, the list could be very different. This list reflects sales ranks as of Monday morning August 27, 2012.
3) In order to keep the focus on new releases, eligible works must have been published within three months of the current date. So, since this list is being done in August 2012, I’m only looking at books published since May 2012. Please keep that in mind before complaining that Title X is not listed. Also, keep in mind that for the most part, I’m tracking sales from smaller press publishers who actively publishing New Pulp material. I don’t generally track sales from Simon and Schuster or places like that — they have the New York Times Bestseller List for that. If one of the major publishers starts doing The Shadow or something, I’ll track that… but I’m not tracking Hard Case Crime or similar publishers any longer. The playing field is simply not level enough.
4) I am no longer tracking pre-release orders. Some publishers never actually release their books and when they do, it’s months after they were supposed to be released. Everything listed in the Top Ten is currently for sale.
5) Like the name suggests, we’re tracking “New” pulp — I’m not tracking sales rankings for reprints of classic material. In order for something to qualify for this list, it has to be at least 50% new material that has not been printed in book form before.
6) I am human. I make mistakes. If you are aware of a title that should be listed below (keeping in mind all the rules above), please let me know and I will make sure to remedy the situation.
7) I get most of my information from All Pulp, New Pulp, the Pulp Factory mailing list and a few other sites. If you think I might miss your release, let me know in advance — drop me a line and tell me when it’s being released.

Without further ado, here’s the completely and totally unofficial New Pulp bestseller list as of right now (title, then publisher, then release date, then sales rank):

1) Captain Action: Riddle of the Glowing Men by Jim Beard (Airship 27, July 2012) – 170,518
2) Doc Savage: The Infernal Buddha by Will Murray (Altus Press, May 2012) – 201,147
3) The Lone Ranger Chronicles by Various (Moonstone Books, May 2012) – 230,353
4) The Green Hornet: Still At Large by Various (Moonstone Books, August 2012) – 260,466
5) Kolchak and the Lost World by C.J. Henderson (Moonstone Books, May 2012) – 407,896
6) Sgt. Janus, Spirit Breaker by Jim Beard (Airship 27, May 2012) – 700,251
7) The Lone Ranger: Vendetta by Howard Hopkins (Moonstone Books, May 2012) – 713,115
8 ) Modern Pulp Heroes by Various (Pulp Empire, June 2012) – 791,312
9) Jungle Tales by Various (Airship 27, June 2012) – 826,747
10) The Pulptress by Various (Pro Se Press, June 2012) – 1,434,792

Just missing the list were: The Adventures of Lazarus Gray: Die Glocke by Barry Reese (Pro Se Press, July 2012) – 1,448,379, The Huntress of Greenwood by Nancy Hansen (Pro Se Press, August 2012) – 1,600,027 and Presidential Pulp by Various (Pulp Empire, June 2012) – 1,607,542.

Folks, Jim Beard has accomplished something very special this week. Not only is his Captain Action novel the # 1 book (I believe this is the first time an Airship 27 book has topped the list but please correct me if I’m wrong) but he has a second book in the top ten as well — Sgt. Janus returns for one last hurrah at # 6. Two solo-written books by one author on the list is very, very rare. Congratulations to Jim Beard, Airship 27 and Captain Action Enterprises for topping the list. I can only assume I helped push it to # 1 by posting my roleplaying game writeup of Captain Action on Sunday — JUST KIDDING! 🙂 Elsewhere on the list, we nearly saw Pro Se shut out for the very first time — but they do manage to hang in there at # 10 with The Pulptress. Pulp Empire snags the # 8 spot on the list — let’s hope they’re a new permanent addition to the list. For the most part, their titles show a lot of volatility in sales ranks but this is the second week in a row that they’ve had a title in the top ten. Next week’s list will be the first in September and several books will no longer be eligible — in fact, the books in spots 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 are all in their final weeks on the list! So expect next week’s rundown to be quite different.

From a publisher standpoint, we have five publishers represented. Moonstone leads the way with four books, followed by Airship 27 with three titles. Altus, Pro Se and Pulp Empire have one each.

Take it all with a grain of salt, folks.