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Bookselling: Crown Reports Opening-Day BECOMING Sales of 725,000 Units, B&N Names It Biggest First Week of the Year, and More

November 19, 2018
By Michael Cader

On Friday afternoon Crown reported that former First Lady Michelle Obama’s BECOMING sold more than 725,000 units in all formats and editions in the US and Canada (including pre-orders) on the first day of its publication, November 13. On top of the initial first printing of 1.8 million hardcovers for North America, the company says it has gone back to press for another 800,000 hardcover. (There goes your print capacity.)

Barnes & Noble followed with a release Monday morning noting that Becoming recorded “the biggest first-week sales of any book this year” — and the best opening week for any adult book in over three years — passing the big opening week for Bob Woodward’s Fear. (James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership is in third place at B&N for opening week sales this year.)

Shakespeare & Co. opened its new approximately 3,000-square-foot Upper West Side store on Saturday at 2020 Broadway, their third location (near where the original Shakespeare & Co. flagship had opened in 1982). CEO Dane Neller said, “We see this as sort of a happier ending to You’ve Got Mail, where Shakespeare finds a new location a few blocks south. The welcoming and good will wishes from the local residents have been overwhelming.” The group has a Greenwich Village store (on Sixth Avenue, at the site of the old Jefferson Market) planned for spring of 2019.

Filed Under: Bookstores, Free

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