Amazon has released their annual “Charts” package for 2018 highlighting some bestselling books and other notables. Last year they focused on the “most read” books of the year, but this time they return to a more conventional lens on the most sold books. In another adjustment, this year, the Charts include sales across print, Kindle, Audible and their Amazon Books stores. The data shows that the top titles at Amazon are not in direct line with the top titles across the entire market, and may give a few clues for anyone trying to merchandise against the giant etailer. We compared […]
Bestseller Radar
People, Etc.: Obamas, and More
Michelle Obama‘s BECOMING was the second-best-selling book in the UK in its opening week, selling 64,732 hardcovers as tracked by Nielsen Bookscan UK. (That’s a little better than Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury in its best week in the UK, when it sold almost 60,000 hardcovers.) You may recall that it was initially expected that former president Barack Obama‘s book might be published first, though that notion did not last long. Indeed he told the audience at the Obama Foundation Summit on Monday in Chicago, “Go buy her book right now. This is causing some strain in our marriage. The […]
What’s Working: Delia Owens’ Fiction Debut
The WSJ takes a look at nonfiction writer Delia Owens’ bestselling debut novel, WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING. Now 69, Owens says she spent 10 years on the book, which was boosted to bestsellerdom a few weeks after its release on August 14 when Reese Witherspoon made it her September book club pick. “I’ve wanted to write fiction for many years, and I became determined to write a novel that would explore how isolation affects a person,” Owens told the Journal. Putnam says they have over 290,000 units so far across all formats. That’s a significantly different profile than what you see […]
Sales News: Comey, Gaines, McNamara and More
The NYT’s mistaken account that James Comey’s early sales for A HIGHER LOYALTY had “dwarfed” those of Michael Wolff’s FIRE AND FURY from January is quickly put to rest by Bookscan’s updated tabulation for the sales week ending April 29. After two weeks on sale, Comey has recorded sales of approximately 446,000 hardcover copies through the service, while Wolff’s book was counted at more than 544,000 hardcovers sold after two weeks and 3 days on sale. But that’s not even the most notable sales news this week. Joanna Gaines took the No. 1 spot overall with recorded opening week sales […]
People, Etc.
At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Becky Saikia-Wilson has been promoted to svp, trade associate publisher. Lyndsay Calusine has been promoted to lead designer on the creative services, design and promotion team. Penny Scott-Bayfield will join Bloomsbury as group finance director on July 16, taking over from Wendy Pallot, who will step down on that day. Scott-Bayfield is currently finance director at Conde Nast Britain. Mary Cate Stevenson and Noah Nofz, who operate a Houston, TX-based digital media marketing company Two Cats Communications, started working for the ABA in March as part-time social media coordinators. Book Expo Book Expo announced two new panels: […]
Bestseller Business: Persecution, and Preorders
Dennis Prager is the latest author to ask for attention by claiming ideological persecution when he did not appear on the New York Times best seller list — even though his publisher Regnery famously proclaimed last year it would no longer refer to the Times lists in its marketing and promotion. (On the one hand, Prager writes, “I don’t pay attention to it,” though he follows that by contradicting himself: “But I paid attention last week to see if my recently published book…was on the list.”) Amusing within our little village is that Prager enumerates how The Rational Bible: Exodus was […]