Bestseller Radar

We are beginning some experimental work with BookStat, the service that tracks and estimates online book sales across all formats, to provide some market insights not previously available. One feature of the system we particularly like (and helped to inspire) is that it tracks pre-orders on a daily basis, right alongside sales of books already on the market, providing a broader view of titles attracting interest from readers. That feature becomes particularly interesting for tracking new release titles (and over time helping to distinguish between actual opening week sales of books, versus their accrued pre-orders). It also means we can […]

Our first little experiment last month proved to be popular, so we’ll continue our monthly recaps of how the previous month’s high-profile retailer and book club picks fared in the marketplace. (Of course these statistics are only a partial view, of print sales only. Some of these books were highly anticipated — and well pre-ordered — long before any of these selections were announced. And we know from experience and previous analyses that Reese Witherspoon’s picks will overweight significantly for increased digital audio sales rather than print sales, thanks to her close commercial partnership with Audible.) But over time we […]

EW probably goes overboard in declaring Jenna Bush Hager as “demonstrating an individual power not seen since Oprah’s glory days” in her  monthly book picks on The Today Show, starting in March. But her selections do have noticeable impact, and provide a clear sales lift. Her inaugural pick was her strongest, however; according to NPD Bookscan, here is how Jenna’s picks have sold in the four weeks of her selection: March: The Last Romantics, Tara Conklin (22,950 copies) April: The Unwinding of the Miracle, Julie Yip-Williams (7,800 copies) May: A Woman Is No Man, Etaf Rum (10,750 copies) June: Searching […]