NP Harry Potter Redux

[Murthy Yenamandra]

Derek C. Maus writes:
> Somehow, "publisher" is not the same level of information to me as
> "author"...for 'zample, I did not by _Mason & Dixon_ because of its
> publication by Holt 

True enough, but my guess is that they use the publisher name in case of
niche publishers who may not have the volume for any particular author
but accumulate respectable totals overall (say a publisher of poetry).
This explanation doesn't work for Andrews & McMeel since Bill Watterson
and Gary Larson have probably sold as many books as Rowling, but it's a
charitable interpretation. 

While I concede your main point about the slippery slope from author to
publisher, I have not yet seen Henry Holt or Viking show up in an "also
bought" list and when I do I should be able to more fully share in your
outrage about the painful obviousness of the commercialism :-).

Murthy

-- 
Murthy Yenamandra                  mailto:yenamand at cs.umn.edu
Dept of Computer Science           University of Minnesota
"I strive to be brief, but I become obscure." - Horace