As noted on Friday, backlist comprised 70 percent of all print book sales in 2022 as measured by NPD Bookscan, and in line with that roughly three quarters of Bookscan’s top 200 books of the year were also published before 2022. They range from the works of Colleen Hoover — who claimed four of the […]
Bestseller Radar
USA Today Bestseller List “On Hiatus” After Longtime Editor Is Laid Off
As part of significant layoffs at USA Today and Gannett, approximately 200 newsroom employees were let go at the beginning of December, including longtime editor of the USA Today Best-Selling Books list Mary Cadden. She produced the list since 2007. (Cadden can be reached at mary.c.cadden@gmail.com.) Following her departure, the paper did not issue the new […]
Top of the Charts: The Year’s Biggest New Release So Far
As print sales for 2021 recorded by NPD Bookscan have shown unprecedented strength so far — still up 17 percent year-over-year even with recent moderation — the very top of the list has in contrast been uncharacteristically soft. Big bestsellers have not been pulling the market, even though frontlist in general is up 11 percent […]
People, Etc.
Will Murphy has joined the ghostwriting and publishing services firm Kevin Anderson & Associates as senior executive editor-at-large. He was previously executive editor at Random House. Kim Daly has been promoted to copy chief at Workman Publishing. Awards Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld‘s The Discomfort of Evening (Graywolf) won the International Booker Prize. At 29, they […]
Briefs
Controversies After UK thriller writer Mark Dawson admitted — or boasted? — about buying his way onto the Sunday Times bestseller list with a modest purchase of 400 hardcovers, Nielsen Bookscan has recalculated that Top 10 chart to remove Dawson’s book and the paper will issue a correction. Nielsen says they initially believed the purchase […]
Bookselling: Easter Book Sales Fall Short; More on the Prospects for Independent Booksellers
NPD Bookscan reported print book sales for the week ending April 11 of 12.47 million units. While that is nicely higher than the previous week, the proper comparison is to the week just before Easter a year ago, since book sales always spike measurably right before the holiday. The comparable week a year ago — […]