As always, backlist titles dominated the top-selling books of last year. Of the top 200 books on Circana Bookscan through December 23, 2023 (their week 51, so nearly final)—including paperbacks and new editions—142 were more than a year old, in line with the roughly 70 percent of all print unit sales comprised by backlist titles. Classics such as The Outsiders and 1984 and perennial kids favorites from Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton took their spots on the list, as did books with big media tie-ins (which have been bestsellers in their own right): Killers of the Flower Moon, Daisy Jones […]
Bestseller Radar
RIP WSJ Bestseller Lists
On November 4 the Wall Street Journal published their final set of book bestseller lists licensed from Circana Bookscan (for the sales week ending October 28). After 14 years of licensing Bookscan data, Dow Jones decided to let their agreement expire. The newspaper began using Bookscan print book sales data for their bestseller lists in 2009 and in late 2011 Bookscan started supplying them with ebook sales data for inclusion in the WSJ charts as well.
Bookstat Posts Monthly Bestseller Lists
Bookstat, which imputes online book sales in real time, has started posting monthly ebook and digital audiobook bestseller lists on LinkedIn. While the service’s promotional materials tout their monitoring of self-published sales, the inaugural lists are dominated by titles from publishers. Two self-published authors make the ebook list: Catharina Maura (#13) and Emily Rath (#16).
The New Bestsellers of 2022
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 top five slots, and sold over 14.3 million copies across multiple titles — plus social media discoveries (The Body Keeps the Score), books adapted to film (Where the Crawdads Sing), perennial bestsellers (The Alchemist, Dr. Seuss), and reissues of popular titles (the illustrated edition of Harry […]
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 weekly list due on December 8 (for sales through December 4). The last live list covers sales through November 27. The newspaper’s managing editor for life and entertainment Laura Trujillo tells PL in answer to our query that, “As the end of the year approaches, […]
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 for the year, and frontlist adult hardcovers as a group are selling almost 23 percent better year-to-date than the average from the past five years. Up until this week, only three new 2021 releases opened with tracked print sales of over 100,000 units: Dav Pilkey’s […]