midlist

English

From mid- +‎ list.

midlist (not comparable)

(publishing, of a book or author) Unlikely to be more than modestly successful.
- 2007 June 4, Celia Mcgee, “A Way to Give Authors a Lucrative Second Platform”, in New York Times‎^[1]:
  He scoffs at the lesser-known, midlist and emerging authors […] .
(publishing, attributively, of books being planned) Expected to achieve sales performance that blends frontlist performance with backlist performance, being neither a bestseller when new nor a perennial backlist performer but strong enough in each of those categories to be successful overall.
Coordinate terms: frontlist, backlist

The celebrity tell-all has been proposed as a frontlist title, whereas the cookbook has been proposed as a backlist title and the food history book as a midlist title.