I've been wanting to have a thread for this for a while, and I saw that O actually mentioned the idea near the beginning of the year, so might as well get it started!

But first, a short summary about the book sales and data that'll be found here:

The sales charts will be from data that Publishers Weekly collects from BookScan (The NPD Group) which covers ~85% of all retail print (physical) sales in the U.S. and Canada. This includes online sales for print books on Amazon and elsewhere too.

Next, some questions answered that I think either gets miscommunicated or confusing for people:

What About eBooks And Audiobooks Sales?

Publishers themselves will include eBooks and Audiobook sales if they report a books first week sales or when releasing the total sales (as of the time of reporting). This only really applies to books that achieve truly massive sales though, record or near record numbers. Otherwise, eBooks and Audiobook sales aren't reported normally.

eBooks and Audiobook sales have, however, been on a downward spiral in most (maybe all) major markets, including the U.S. and Canada. They were doing well in the early-to-mid 2010s, but 2020 aside (pandemic), digital sales have been on the decline for the better part of a decade now and average under 20% (18% last year, I believe) of book sales today. It might be the only market where digital sales of a product has plateaued and doesn't appear to be harming physical sales or physical book existence.

There are still instances of eBooks and Audiobooks having a higher than average share of sales, sometimes up to 40-50%, but this percentage generally only applies to very hyped releases that rely more on first week sales (think Spare by Prince Harry). That percentage gradually decreases after that initial period.

What Is A Bestseller?

A bestseller is a book that has charted on a sales chart such as the New York Times or USA Today. That's it. It doesn't have to rank #1 or in the Top 10, or atop a certain category (fiction, non-fiction, children's, etc). And it doesn't need to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. It simply needs enough sales to make a chart (top 20/25).

But to chart, a book obviously has to sell a certain amount. And that amount fluctuates depending on how every book on the chart is selling, how many new releases there are, and more.

Typically, it takes around 5,000 copies sold in a week earn a spot on a Bestsellers chart, although to be more guaranteed ~10,000 is a much safer goal. However, there can be some weeks during the year where under 5,000 copies can get a book on there. I've seen as low as 2,000-3,000 if it's a slower week with few new releases or evergreen titles, and that can be enough to achieve bestseller status for the book and author.

What Is Considered Strong Or Even Decent Book Sales?

This one can be a little confusing, I admit. For starters, getting on the bestsellers lists is a start and is considered a standard of success. But success has many different meanings.

Preorders are very important for authors and publishers because it shows interest in a book, and retailers have people who pay attention to this data. So a book that has noticeable preorders is going to be ordered in higher quantities by retailers, and thus, into (hopefully) the hands of more readers.

Next, here is a very rough guide for first week and total sales. Note: This doesn't apply to every book. If a bestselling author (or big celeb) is given a large sum advance on a book, say seven figures, but that book sells say... 25,000 in its first week and doesn't garner enough good WOM to achieve longevity on the charts and peters out around 75,000 copies sold before falling off the charts, it's going to be pretty disappointing for the publisher.

This example would likely barely be enough to generate a profit, unless the author also got a significant cut of sales too, then it'd be either a loss or a breakeven situation. The industry is pretty reliant on their big releases to turn big profits to support them, as are smaller (or new) authors who don't have the same advantages of getting published. Think of it like trickle down economics, but where it works more effectively. Now, a breakout hit that ends up selling hundreds of thousands or even millions over a longer period of time is great (becoming more common in the age of TikTok/BookTok), of course, but you can't always predict or expect this to happen to offset small gains (or loses) from a big book release failing.

Okay, so here is the rough (remember, rough, doesn't apply to every release) guide to gauge success:

First Week Sales / Weekly Sales:

<5,000 - Disappointing
5,000-10,000 - Average
10,000-25,000 - Fair
25,000-50,000 - Good
50,000-100,000 - Very Good
100,000-250,000 - Great
>250,000 - Best

Cumulative / Lifetime Sales:

10,000-25,000 - Disappointing
25,000-50,000 - Average
50,000-100,000 - Fair
100,000-250,000 - Good
250,000-500,000 - Very Good
500,000-1,000,000 - Great
>1,000,000 - Best

There, that should cover most questions, but ask if there is something else. The next post will be the top selling books from the last few years, and then I'll focus on this year.

Cool

Sales don't rollover into the next year on the charts, starting fresh every year, so keep this in mind when seeing some of the totals. Some books also sell well enough in the year after its released, and sometimes across many years (see: Becoming and Where the Crawdads Sing on the charts for example), so in these cases I'll have the cumulative (or LTD) sales in parenthesis.

I've included as many LTD sales as I can for now with the exception of the children's picture books. Titles like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Oh, the Places You'll Go!, among a few others, almost always make the Top 25 every year. There is weekly/yearly sales data going back to 2012, but many of these are older (some way older) than that, so their LTD sales would be incomplete anyway.

I decided to start with 2018. Feel it's probably the most "modern" year to begin with, and it was also the release year for Becoming by Michelle Obama which achieved (still true to this day) both the biggest sales year and one of the highest, along side Where the Crawdads Sing, LTD sales of any book since the early 2010s (Fifty Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games being the only two titles that sold (though not too much) more).

Print Sales - YTD (LTD) - Title (Author)

2018:


2019:


2020:


2021:


2022:


Lastly, here is the Biggest First Week Sales since 2012. First week sales don't mean too much in the industry outside of big releases, but even then, it's possible to have a slow start and go on to do well week after week and achieve very high sales. So, using comparing first week sales of one book against another can be unreliable in comparing success. It's always better to compare overall sales. A book that sells 5,000 copies in its first week can still end up selling more than one that sells over 100,000 copies in its first week.

Biggest First Week Print Sales (2012-Present):
2,619,285 - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One & Two (J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, July 2016)
834,776 - A Promised Land (Barack Obama, Nov. 2020)
809,355 - It Starts with Us (Colleen Hoover, Oct. 2022)
761,140 - Go Set a Watchman (Harper Lee, July 2015)
697,824 - Becoming (Michelle Obama, Nov. 2018)
629,273 - Spare (Prince Harry, Jan. 2023)
524,665 - Midnight Sun (Stephenie Meyer, Aug. 2020)
387,347 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck (Jeff Kinney, Nov. 2013)
380,610 - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Suzanne Collins, May 2020)
368,949 - Inferno (Dan Brown, May 2013)
362,217 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel (Jeff Kinney, Nov. 2012)
359,890 - A Higher Loyalty (James B. Comey, Apr. 2018)
355,387 - The House of Hades (Rick Riordan, Oct. 2013)
354,723 - Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian (E.L. James, June, 2015)
344,742 - Rage (Bob Woodward, Sept. 2020)
343,120 - Fear: Trump in the White House (Bob Woodward, Sept. 2018)
337,473 - Too Much and Never Enough (Mary Trump, July 2020) - 337,473
329,180 - American Marxism (Mark R. Levin, July 2021)
322,068 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (Jeff Kinney, Nov. 2014)
315,282 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School (Jeff Kinney, Nov. 2015)
312,616 - Dog Man: Fetch-22 (Dav Pilkey, Dec. 2019)
254,046 - No Easy Day (Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer, Sept. 2012)
242,562 - Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls (Dav Pilkey, Aug. 2019)
240,163 - The Mark of Athena (Rick Riordan, Oct. 2012)
239,131 - Dog Man: Grime and Punishment (Dav Pilkey, Sept. 2020)
238,731 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down (Jeff Kinney, Nov. 2016)
235,978 - Dog Man: Mothering Heights (Dav Pilkey, Mar. 2021)
231,702 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway (Jeff Kinney, Nov. 2017)
230,764 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown (Jeff Kinney, Oct. 2018)
228,473 - Allegiant (Veronica Roth, Oct. 2013)
225,612 - Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea (Dav Pilkey, Mar. 2023)
221,341 - The Room Where It All Happened (John Bolton, June 2020)
215,635 - Whose Boat Is This Boat? (Staff of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Nov. 2018)
214,667 - The Hill We Climb (Amanda Gorman, Mar. 2021)
211,354 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Big Shot (Jeff Kinney, Oct. 2021)

This is so awesome! Thanks for sharing. I was shocked when you said audiobooks were declining. I always hear about people consuming audiobooks.

I do wonder with all of these return to the office post pandemic and longer commutes again if audiobooks and ebooks make a comeback in the next year.

I didn’t know who Colleen Hoover is, looks like she’s on fire. Movie adaptations coming? (looks like a Blake Lively one is in the works)

Michelle Obama’s number is huge, she would definitely win if she ran for president.

I maintain my belief they should revisit the Twilight well, it looks like they might be making a show.

And 2023! It's quick and easy to copy/paste the weekly sales chart, so I can do it every week from this point on.

October and November are typically big months for big book releases (holiday boost and all), with a new Josh Grisham last week and Britney Spears this week for example, not to mention Iron Flame (sequel to Fourth Wing which has been dominate on the charts this year) which is racking up some huge preorders ahead of its November 7th release.


PW's Weekly Top 25 (Oct. 17-23, 2023):

TW (LW) [Weeks on List] Print Sales (YTD Sales) - Title (Author)
01 (---) [1] 109,295 (New) - The Exchange: After the Firm (John Grisham, Oct. 2023)
02 (---) [1] 47,545 (New) - Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism (Rachel Maddow, Oct. 2023)
03 (10) [23] 31,484 (337,572) - Killers of the Flower Moon (David Grann, Apr. 2018)
04 (03) [23] 29,678 (701,515) - Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros, May 2023)
05 (06) [4] 26,884 (113,700) - Enough (Cassidy Hutchinson, Sept. 2023)
06 (---) [1] 21,611 (New) - Worthy (Jada Pinkett Smith, Oct. 2023)
07 (05) [4] 21,321 (188,484) - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods (Rick Riordan, Sept. 2023)
08 (18) [51] 20,374 (773,869) - Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus, Apr. 2022)
09 (04) [3] 20,196 (106,766) - Wildfire (Hannah Grace, Oct. 2023)
10 (43) [11] 19,357 (266,198) - A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara, Jan. 2016)
11 (---) [1] 19,279 (New) - Spy x Family Vol. 10 (Tatsuya Endo, Oct. 2023)
12 (---) [1] 19,209 (New) - Forever Strong: A New, Science-Based Strategy for Aging Well (Gabrielle Lyon, Oct. 2023)
13 (---) [1] 16,868 (New) - Joshua Weissman: Texture Over Taste (Joshua Weissman, Oct. 2023)
14 (---) [1] 15,717 (New) - Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones (Dolly Parton, Rebecca Seaver, Oct. 2023)
15 (---) [1] 15,391 (New) - Two Twisted Crowns (Rachel Gillig, Oct. 2023)
16 (13) [37] 15,258 (578,424) - Icebreaker (Hannah Grace, Feb. 2023)
17 (25) [12] 15,198 (227,446) - Tom Lake (Ann Patchett, Aug. 2023)
18 (16) [8] 14,894 (102,703) - Spooky Pookie (Sandra Boynton, July 2017)
19 (01) [2] 14,314 (54,470) - Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oct. 2023)
20 (17) [9] 13,513 (129,073) - You're My Little Pumpkin Pie (Natalie Marshall, July 2018)
21 (15) [7] 13,189 (253,532) - Holly (Stephen King, Sept. 2023)
22 (14) [4] 12,742 (93,519) - Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts (Bill O' Reilly, Martin Dugard, Sept. 2023)
23 (19) [3] 12,425 (44,839) - The Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to Be Rapture Ready (David Jeremiah, Oct. 2023)
24 (21) [25] 12,364 (380,198) - Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography (Wendy Loggia, Elisa Chavarri, May 2023)
25 (12) [3] 12,291 (80,453) - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabam: Minalima Edition (J.K. Rowling, Minalima, Oct. 2023)


Biggest First Week Print Sales of 2023 (So Far):
629,273 - Spare (Prince Harry, Jan. 2023)
225,612 - Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea (Dav Pilkey, Mar. 2023)
129,393 - The Democrat Party Hates America (Mark R. Levin, Sept. 2023)
126,897 - Baking Yesteryear: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s (Dylan Hollis, July 2023)
109,295 - The Exchange: After the Firm (John Grisham, Oct. 2023)
108,029 - Holly (Stephen King, Sept. 2023)
107,822 - Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS (BTS, Myeongseok Kang, Anton Hur, Slin Jung, Claire Richards, July 2023)
98,739 - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods (Rick Riordan, Sept. 2023)
94,284 - The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival (Ron DeSantis, Mar. 2023)
94,173 - Happy Place (Emily Henry, Apr. 2023)
92,560 - Elon Musk (Walter Isaacson, Sept. 2023)
78,223 - Things We Left Behind (Lucy Score, Sept. 2023)
69,497 - The Five-Star Weekend (Elin Hilderbrand, June 2023)
68,160 - Never Never: A Twisty, Angsty Romance (Colleen Hoover, Tarryn Fisher, Mar. 2023)
67,095 - Magnolia Table, Vol. 3 (Joanna Gaines, May 2023)
66,585 - 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go (Jay Shetty, Feb. 2023)
63,971 - Things We Hide from the Light (Lucy Score, Feb. 2023)
62,131 - Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier (Arthur C. Brooks, Oprah Winfrey)
61,278 - Outlive: The Science of Art and Longevity (Peter Attia, Bill Gifford, Apr. 2023)
61,156 - Too Late: Definitive Edition (Colleen Hoover, June 2023)
59,533 - Wildfire (Hannah Grace, Oct. 2023)
59,160 - The Legend of Zelda: Tear of the Kingdom - The Complete Official Guide: Collector's Edition (July 2023)
58,422 - Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home (Benjamin Hall, Mar. 2023)
52,577 - The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure (Rick Riordan, Mark Oshiro, May 2023)
51,151 - Enough (Cassidy Hutchinson, Sept. 2023)


Best Selling Print Books of 2023 (So Far):
1,190,038 - Spare (Prince Harry, Jan. 2023)
1,136,493 (3,021,844) - It Starts with Us (Colleen Hoover, Oct. 2022)
945,781 - Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea (Dav Pilkey, Mar. 2023)
773,869 (1,209,752) - Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus, Apr. 2022)
701,515 - Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros, May 2023)
578,424 - Icebreaker (Hannah Grace, Feb. 2023)
537,641 - Happy Place (Emily Henry, Apr. 2023)
497,890 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle, Mar. 1994)
488,574 - Heart Bones (Colleen Hoover, Jan. 2023)
486,792 (598,582) - Twisted Love (Ana Huang, Sept. 2022)
472,276 - Never Never: A Twisty, Angsty Romance (Collen Hoover, Tarryn Fisher, Feb. 2023)
466,680 - Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle, Sept. 1996)
432,712 (504,985) - The Housemaid (Freida McFadden, Aug. 2022)
409,851 - Too Late: Definitive Edition (Collen Hoover, June 2023)
388,977 - I Love You to the Moon and Back (Amelia Hepworth, Tim Warnes, Mar. 2015)
386,147 - The Creative ACT: A Way of Being (Rick Rubin, Jan. 2023)
385,583 (568,303) - Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver, Oct. 2022)
380,198 - Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography (Wendy Loggia, Elisa Chavarri, May 2023)
374,702 - Outlive: The Science of Art and Longevity (Peter Attia, Bill Gifford, Apr. 2023)
359,966 - Things We Hide from the Light (Lucy Score, Feb. 2023)
337,572 - Killers of the Flower Moon (David Grann, Apr. 2018)
335,385 - The Last Thing He Told Me (Laura Dave, Mar. 2023)
313,218 - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, Lois Ehlert, Aug. 2012)
310,796 - Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd, Oct. 1991)
306,343 - The Covenant of Water (May 2023) - 306,343
305,171 - I Love You Like No Otter (Rose Rossner, Sydney Hanson, Jan. 2020)
301,136 (359,769) - Twisted Games (Ana Huang, Sept. 2022)
281,894 (1,112,219) - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Book 17 (Jeff Kinney, Oct. 2022)
276,691 (859,718) - I'm Glad My Mom Died (Jennette McCurdy, Aug. 2022)
270,565 -Magnolia Table, Vol. 3: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering (Joanna Gaines, May 2023)
266,198 - A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara, Jan. 2016)
262,376 - Cat Kid Comic Club: Collaborations (Dav Pilkey, Nov. 2022)
255,558 - The Wagner: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (David Grann, Apr. 2023)
253,532 - Holly (Stephen King, Sept. 2023)

Note that the cumulative sales is the last total available before it fell off the sales chart, so many will see significant jumps when the final sales for the year are available. And in some cases a book will rechart months after falling off, so their total will see a big jump in this situation too since they're still selling a couple/few thousand when they're off the charts.

Hoover is huge (writes romance). Queen author on TikTok. (Although some say her books "normalize" domestic abuse, but that might just be the opinion of a few that's taken off.) She sold over 14 million books alone in 2022.

I imagine all the movie studios are in talks with her.

Dog Man's pun game is ruff.

There is also Amazon's Kindle Unlimited which lets you, last I checked, read up to 5 books at a time for $11.99 (US) a month, and I assume it includes audiobooks too. Amazon reports their most read books but not sales on Kindle. But I know some authors aren't on Kindle Unlimited out of choice. There was a big dispute between Amazon and the major book publishers (and the authors under them) some years ago about it being unfair in terms of compensation.

Aside from Amazon, there are cases where eBooks and audiobooks do account for nearly half of a book's sales, especially in the first week or two on very hyped books (generally memoirs and/or political books) people want to read ASAP due to the nature of the book or to avoid spoilers. It can also be harder to find some big books on shelves the first week. For example, I feel confident predicting 30/40% of The Women In Me (Britney Spears) will be from digital sales when we get the numbers later this week.

On the other hand, some books have very low digital shares, far below that of the market average. These are usually books that have store exclusive editions / collector editions. Books from an author or series with a dedicated fanbase receive this treatment. The new Percy Jackson book has an exclusive edition for every major retailer in the US/Canada (Amazon, Target, Walmart, B&N, BAM!, and Indigo I believe). There's no question its eBook/audiobook sales are very low.

Also, "Worthy" (Jada Pinkett Smith's memoir) really disappointed in its first week up there. She was really promoting it heavily, too. I don't think she's quite big enough to have gotten a massive sum of money for it, but it's still firmly in the seven figures I bet. This is a title that probably had a good eBook/audiobook share, but even still, if you'd double the print sales (unlikely), it's a rough debut.

It'll need some big staying power on the charts through the upcoming holidays for the publisher to recoup what they spent for it. And if Jada also got a deal to receive a percentage of the sales, it's going to be a big uphill challenge here.

John Grisham's "After the Exchange: The Firm" did great, by the way. He consistently sees debuts close to/over 100,000, and they often go on to move a half million or so on average (physical).

No surprise on Jada's bio disappointing. She has been pretty open already that a biography didn't feel like it had much reveal or urgency to read. Britney's memoir is definitely a different story.

Also super impressed that The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? sold nearly 500K copies this year. Feels like Disney or Illumination could really make a big family film from those.

I was going to say it's probably difficult to make a ~90 minute film from just 30/40 page children's picture books, but Illumination has done well adapting various Dr. Seuss books which are similar length. There's probably some potential to be found in The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the others that sell half a million copies or so every year.

Aiming for a little bit older audience, I'm honestly surprised no movie(s) or TV show has been made from Dog Man yet. It sells extremely well and would surely do at least some decent numbers even if it doesn't translate into a blockbuster series or something.

Lessons in Chemistry got picked up and adapted into a miniseries quick by Apple. Debuted just last month on Apple (Brie Larson as lead). Wonder if they were able to snatch it up "cheap" before auction prices presumably became much higher than they would have been this year. Reviews are positive, so good for them.

Amazon announced they won the rights in a heated bidding war for Fourth Wing just yesterday. The plan is to adapt it into a show vs movie, and if it does well, they'll continue with the sequels (first sequel releasing this month). The first book was only released this passed May, but it's already sold over a million copies (when including digital sales) and hasn't left the top 5 since its reprints began hitting shelves last July (initial print sold out quick).

I just finished reading it a couple weeks ago and can see it being a popular show for Amazon. Dragons, war college, romance, action... it could be a hit. Interested if they'll tone down the violence, language and sex scenes for a 13/14+ rating or just keep it as is. It's in the growing "New Adult" genre which primarily targets adults from 18-29 that might be hard to market for film/TV, so too mature for teens but maybe not as explicit or gory enough for more adult audiences.

Britney sales reported at 1.1M first week. Spare did 1.6M but I feel like Britney's will have a longer run going into the holidays. She also did no press at all so that feels like a very good result?

It's an excellent result. Skewed heavily digital (when I say digital I mean eBook and Audiobook just in case that needs clarified) as expected of a book of its type, selling a currently estimated 418,000 copies in print. (Remember that print sales come from 85% of retail sales, so they'll always be that missing 15% we don't see too).

It's not a record or anything, but it does rank among the fastest selling books. I'll share the list next.

That’s pretty good though I feel it was a little late to catch the peak free Britney sympathy

PW's Weekly Top 25 [85% of Print Market] (Oct. 24-30, 2023):

TW (LW) [Weeks on List] Print Sales (YTD Sales) - Title (Author)
01 (---) [1] 417,947 (New) - The Woman in Me (Britney Spears, Oct. 2023)
02 (---) [1] 142,854 (New) - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer (Jeff Kinney, Oct. 2023)
03 (---) [1] 60,848 (New) - A Curse for True Love (Stephanie Garber, Oct. 2023)
04 (01) [2] 49,499 (159,059) - The Exchange: After the Firm (John Grisham, Oct. 2023)
05 (---) [1] 41,588 (New) - The Secret: A Jack Reacher Novel (Lee Child, Andrew Child, Oct. 2023)
06 (03) [24] 39,361 (377,056) - Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (David Grann, Apr. 2018)
07 (---) [1] 37,831 (New) - Untitled Pioneer Woman's Cookbook (Ree Drummond, Oct. 2023)
08 (---) [1] 36,890 (New) - King of Greed (Ana Huang, Oct. 2023)
09 (---) [1] 33,998 (New) - Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things (Adam Grant, Oct. 2023)
10 (04) [26] 25,540 (727,350) - Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros, May 2023)
11 (---) [1] 23,692 (New) - How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (David Brooks, Oct. 2023)
12 (---) [1] 17,990 (New) - Romney: A Reckoning (McKay Coppins, Oct. 2023)
13 (---) [1] 17,560 (New) - If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir (John Stamos, Oct. 2023)
14 (02) [2] 17,202 (64,882) - Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism (Rachel Maddow, Oct. 2023)
15 (---) [1] 16,349 (New) - How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond (Levy Rozman, Oct. 2023)
16 (07) [5] 16,233 (204,758) - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods (Rick Riordan, Sept. 2023)
17 (23) [4] 14,771 (59,747) - The Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to Be Rapture Ready (David Jeremiah, Oct. 2023)
18 (09) [4] 14,143 (120,949) - Wildfire (Hannah Grace, Oct. 2023)
19 (16) [38] 13,487 (591,966) - Icebreaker (Hannah Grace, Feb. 2023)
20 (18) [9] 13,795 (116,499) - Spooky Pookie (Sandra Boynton, July 2017)
21 (24) [26] 12,372 (392,921) - Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography (Wendy Loggia, Elisa Chavarri, May 2023)
22 (27) [1125] 12,291 (510,387) - The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle, Mar. 1994)
23 (28) [1185] 11,494 (478,422) - Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle, Sept. 1996)
24 (19) [3] 11,329 (65,829) - Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oct. 2023)
25 (21) [8] 11,247 (264,852) - Holly (Stephen King, Sept. 2023)


Biggest First Week Print Sales of 2023 (As of Oct. 30th):


Best Selling Print Books of 2023 (As of Oct. 30th):


Note that the cumulative sales is the last total available before it fell off the sales chart, so many will see significant jumps when the final sales for the year are available. And in some cases a book will rechart months after falling off, so their total will see a big jump in this situation too since they're still selling a couple/few thousand when they're off the charts.

Britney should have named her book Toxic.

Interested in Fourth Wing since we haven't had a huge fantasy series in awhile, but I feel a little burnt out on dragons right now and your description makes it seem kinda edgelordy.

Why is it that only kids books last through time while everything else seems to be very very frontloaded? Is it because people who don't buy first week are likely to just grab it from the library?

Ooo, a new young adult series hitting is always nice to see (although this one sounds a hit more R rated)

I know with me, I regularly gift the same kids books for friends with newborns. So I can see how those classic kids books sell time and time again.

Adults are complicated between audiobooks, hardcover, paperback, etc. The only books I have gifted have been more decorative coffee table type books I thought people would like but don't find I gift books to adults.

Yeah, the kids books keep selling because they're popular gifts for friends/family with young kids, and there are always a new group of kids hitting reading age.

Assuming I'm still doing this through the spring, you'll see many Dr. Seuss books on the charts for a couple weeks. They seem to be popular Easter gifts for kids. And, of course, Oh! The Places You'll Go! begins to chart again around graduation time because it's an easy choice to buy kids for graduation.

Memoirs and such are almost always frontloaded, and books from a long-established author (think Stephen King or Rick Riordan who currently have new books on the charts) can sometimes be a bit frontloaded as their fanbase picks up the books early. This isn't always the case though. If a book from a genre or author that is generally frontloaded is just really, really good, and generates buzz with readers and on social media now, then they can have a long life on the charts.

And we've been seeing more and more books have disappointing or modest debuts and even low sales for many weeks or months until they finally find traction on social media (namely BookTok) and start to take off and eclipse their earlier sales. There are cases of books now having been released years ago that suddenly become hits as people recommend them on social media. Colleen Hoover is a good example here. It took her several years to find any big success, she had written several books already, and now she's the top selling author of the last couple years as people go back and pick up all her books.

And Fourth Wing is more adult than Hunger Games or Twilight, etc. It's not like A Song of Ice and Fire or something, but it's more violent and sexual than a YA series. All the characters are adults (main characters in their 20s). Most teens (at least 15-16+) would probably be okay reading it, but it's definitely 18+ so... caution. It's somewhere in-between, which is starting to become a trend now. Sarah J. Mass is another example of an author that's found a place in this genre (known as "New Adult" that targets 18-29 year-olds as opposed to "Young Adult" that targets 12-18 year-olds) with her popular series A Court of Thorns and Roses that Hulu got the rights to a while back.

We'll get a good idea of Fourth Wing may be the next big fantasy series when the second book (Iron Flame) debuts next week. I know, a sequel just 6 months after the first is crazy! It's a planned 5-book series.

There's also a special edition of Fourth Wing releasing the same day which will help gauge how big its fanbase has become. Both books have been having very strong presales. They've gone in/out of stock on Amazon for weeks, and both Amazon and B&N have sold out of the first print of Iron Flame already and have moved onto the second print with preorders, so if Iron Flame sees a huge debut, we could be looking at something special here.

Looked more into this. The ~20% share of book sales being eBook/Audiobook is from everywhere that reports them. And Amazon, far and away the leading eBook/Audiobook retailer, does NOT report sales for Kindle (only the publishers get those numbers). That's obviously a huge amount of sales unreported.

I looked more into it because Iron Flame (sequel to Fourth Wing) could be looking at a massive debut this week. It released today and it's almost sold out everywhere, both in-store and online. Preorders for the special first print sold out last week at every major retailer ahead of its release today, and now the standard edition is largely unavailable at every major retailer today (Amazon stock comes and goes).

I preordered it two months ago and mine hasn't even shipped yet. I went to contact support and there was a prompt before even reaching a representative saying that if the inquiry is about shipping for Iron Flame that there's been "unprecedented demand" and the warehouse is actively shipping orders based on the date they were placed (oldest-to-newest).

I looked up overall sales for Fourth Wing to maybe get an idea of what Iron Flame might be looking at for its debut week if say... 2/3rds of its readers bought it first week and they've exceed 2 million copies (727,000 print as of last week) and it's only been out for 6 months. I don't know if Iron Flame was under-printed by the publisher despite knowing it was going to be big (to be fair though, copies would have finished printing a couple of months back), or if demand truly is "unprecedented", but we might be looking at one of the biggest debuts in fiction in a very long time.

People are also sharing that their local libraries have weeks-long wait times (some shared images showing they're like 400 in line out of almost a thousand strong in the line) to borrow a copy of the eBook, so maybe this series is the next big fantasy. And the libraries are having to order anywhere from 400-600 more copies of the eBook.

Great thread, thanks.

The Exchange is Grisham's follow-up to The Firm which was a mega seller (though not sure how many it sold). This number looks solid, I guess.

It had a good first week and has been holding well since. Sales across the board will be strong over the next month+ too due to the holidays.

I'm working on last week's (Oct. 31-Nov. 6) Top 25 now. For future reference, weekly sales are published every Thursday into Friday.

Matthew Perry's book is in the top 10 on this chart as sales spiked following his death. Remember that sales on the weekly charts are YTD not LTD when books released in years prior chart again in a new year. At the end of 2022, his book had sold 311,431, so combined with the 107,715 copies it's sold in 2023 (which you'll see on the sales chart this week), it's print sales LTD is up to 419,146.

And next week's (or this week technically) sales could be the highest in a single week this year if Iron Flame's print run was able to meet demand + all the dozens of other new releases. There are many new releases that will put up solid numbers. I mentioned before that October and November are popular months for book releases since they're just before the holidays. And November 7th this year had dozens of notable titles release.

PW's Weekly Top 25 [85% of Print Market] (Oct. 31-Nov. 6, 2023):

TW (LW) [Weeks on List] Print Sales (YTD Sales) - Title (Author)
01 (01) [2] 132,452 (550,399) - "The Woman in Me" (Britney Spears, Oct. 2023)
02 (02) [2] 78,956 (231,507) - "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer" (Jeff Kinney, Oct. 2023)
03 (---) [1] 45,845 (New) - "Dirty Thirty" (Janet Evanovich, Oct. 2023)
04 (04) [3] 37,671 (196,731) - "The Exchange: After the Firm" (John Grisham, Oct. 2023)
05 (NA) [1] 35,695 (107,715) - "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir" (Matthew Perry, Nov. 2022)
06 (10) [27] 29,986 (757,336) - "Fourth Wing" (Rebecca Yarros, May 2023)
07 (---) [1] 29,897 (New) - "Big Heart Little Stove" (Erin French, Oct. 2023)
08 (06) [25] 25,601 (402,657) - "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI" (David Grann, Apr. 2018)
09 (07) [2] 23,627 (61,458) - "Untitled Pioneer Woman's Cookbook" (Ree Drummond, Oct. 2023)
10 (05) [2] 22,075 (63,663) - "The Secret: A Jack Reacher Novel" (Lee Child, Andrew Child, Oct. 2023)
11 (---) [1] 18,861 (New) - "The Graham Effect" (E K, Oct. 2023)
12 (---) [1] 16,869 (New) - "Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond" (Henry Winkler, Oct. 2023)
13 (17) [5] 16,323 (76,050) - "The Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to Be Rapture Ready" (David Jeremiah, Oct. 2023)
14 (21) [27] 14,549 (407,470) - "Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography" (Wendy Loggia, Elisa Chavarri, May 2023)
15 (16) [6] 14,047 (218,805) - "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods" (Rick Riordan, Sept. 2023)
16 (NA) [14] 13,731 (165,395) - "The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel)" (Suzanne Collins, Aug. 2023)
17 (19) [39] 12,769 (604,735) - "Icebreaker" (Hannah Grace, Feb. 2023)
18 (11) [2] 12,451 (36,143) - "How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen" (David Brooks, Oct. 2023)
19 (08) [2] 12,031 (48,921) - "King of Greed" (Ana Huang, Oct. 2023)
20 (18) [5] 11,709 (132,658) - "Wildfire" (Hannah Grace, Oct. 2023)
21 (14) [3] 11,355 (76,237) - "Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism" (Rachel Maddow, Oct. 2023)
22 (NA) [1] 11,161 (24,342) - "You're My Little Christmas Cookie" (Nicola Edwards, Natalie Marshall, Oct. 2021)
23 (22) [1126] 10,856 (521,244) - "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (Eric Carle, Mar. 1994)
24 (23) [1186] 10,795 (489,217) - "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" (Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle, Sept. 1996)
25 (25) [9] 10,383 (275,235) - "Holly" (Stephen King, Sept. 2023)


Biggest First Week Print Sales of 2023 (As of Nov. 6th):



Best Selling Print Books of 2023 (As of Nov. 6th):


2023 sales are the most recent or last available known YTD total. If a book has charted in the last week and is on the Best Selling Books of 2023 chart, it's highlighted with its weekly sales in parenthesis. For books released in prior years (2012-2022), their last available or known LTD sales are included after the backslash.