The launch of Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 on May 30 with the selection of Cheryl Strayed’s WILD–and national media attention for Oprah’s return to book recommendations–has boosted the book’s profile and sales for certain. But will the cable + online Oprah profile come anywhere close to the impact of her syndicated television book endorsements? For the sales week ending June 10, Nielsen Bookscan reports print book sales of approximately 11,300 copies, up roughly 7,700 units from the prior week (with weekly sales having ranged from 3,100 to 4,400 copies over the previous four weeks). That is the book’s best week […]
Bestseller Radar
Scholastic Adds 12.5 Million Units of Hunger Games In 2012
Scholastic says that the three Hunger Games titles have over 36.5 million units in print in the US: over 17.5 million copies of THE HUNGER GAMES; 10 million copies of CATCHING FIRE; and 9 million copies of Mockingjay. In January the publisher said they had 24 million units in print, so they have shipped and/or sold 12.5 million units so far in 2012. That squares roughly with the figures in Scholastic’s recent quarterly earnings report on March 15. Trade book sales had jumped from $43.5 million up to $112 million, largely on the strength of Hunger Games sales. That $68.5 […]
How Do eBooks Change the 2011 Bestsellers?
USA Today has published their list of the top 100 bestsellers for 2011. As the only major list that has used combined print and ebook data for the entire year, they provide the best look at the true, overall bestsellers for the year. We wondered how much the inclusion of ebook sales changes the nature of the year’s top-selling books. The answer, in a word, is: barely. Below are comparisons of USA Today’s top 15 adult fiction and nonfiction books (with print and ebook sales combined; the actual USA top 100 rank is in parentheses) versus Nielsen Bookscan’s top 15 […]
E Ink Sales Drop Far More Than Expected; Kickstarter Funds Over $5 Million of Publishing
E Ink Holdings surprised Asian stock markets Monday with worse-than-expected December sales, with the company’s shares dropping the maximum allowed in a single day. December sales declined 55 percent from the prior month, and were down 57 percent compared to December 2010. November’s sales were 33 percent lower than October, but chairman Scott Liu indicated that all of their holiday orders had been shipped early “in response to customer demands,” with “a portion of November orders [going out] in October, which contributed to the fact that November sales revenues were lower than earlier expectations. But December’s sales were far below […]
How Many Self-Published Authors Were Bestsellers In 2011?
Self-publishing success stories were another big, perhaps overplayed, theme in 2011, and the new year starts off with the transition of Amanda Hocking bestsellers to St. Martin’s. The first in her Trylle Trilogy SWITCHED was reissued on January, with both the ebook and 336-page paperback priced at $8.99. TORN follows on February 28 and ASCEND will be rereleased on April 24. Here’s a link for an NPR All Things Considered piece on Hocking. Meanwhile, a user of Penguin start-up Book Country, Kerry Schafer, elicited interest from agent Deidre Knight for her fantasy novel BETWEEN, and made a two-book deal with […]
eNews: eBooks Fill the USA Today Bestseller List; Patterson Sells Over 5 Million eBooks; and More
Heavy post-Christmas ebook buying is evident in USA Today’s latest bestseller list, published Thursday morning, on which ebook versions outsold print editions for 42 of the top 50 books. Below are the outliers that sold more in print (one of which, Wimpy Kid, is not available in ebook form). This time a year ago, USA Today suddenly showed 19 of the top 50 titles selling better as ebooks than in print; up until then, no more than two of their top 50 met that criterion. 11 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney 19 Inheritance, Christopher Paolini 23 […]