backlist

noun

back·​list ˈbak-ˌlist How to pronounce backlist (audio)
: a list of books kept in print as distinguished from books newly published

Examples of backlist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
After Evelyn Hugo went viral, suddenly readers were looking for other books by Reid—many of them, according to Barnes & Noble senior director of books Shannon DeVito, arriving in stores to film content and find backlist titles. Lucy Feldman, Time, 15 May 2025 Broadway theaters subsist on stunt-cast revivals of old warhorses; book publishers rely disproportionately on backlist sales. Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 5 May 2025 To some in Hollywood, today’s rhetoric reflects a throwback to the epoch of the backlist decades ago. Peter Bart, Deadline, 30 Jan. 2025 Because Amazon’s search algorithm appears to favor writers with larger backlists, there’s an incentive to flood the platform with titles—and to pad those titles with as many pages as possible, as Kindle Unlimited distributes royalties to the creators with the highest number of pages read. Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for backlist

Word History

First Known Use

1946, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of backlist was in 1946

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Cite this Entry

“Backlist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/backlist. Accessed 21 May. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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