Following its introduction to Australia in 2000, the Nielsen BookScan sales tracking system has revolutionised the ways in which bestseller lists are created and communicated to the public. The transition to the BookScan system has marked a shift from partially intuitive modes of assessing consumer behaviour to a greater rationalisation of the consultative methods employed by the Australian book industry, characterised by the constant generation of sales data. With unprecedented precision, BookScan bestseller lists have revealed the comparatively poor sales of Australian literary fiction, against the more robust rankings of genre fiction, prompting claims that BookScan is hastening the demise of Australian literature.' (Author's introduction)