The biggest book yet to be released under the New Harvest imprint, My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall, sold just over 2,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen BookScan. Marshall's book, acquired by Amazon Publishing with the print edition released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's New Harvest imprint, received heavy promotion across Amazon's Web site and is currently #193 on Amazon's bestseller list. It is doing better in e-book format, where is was second on the nonfiction bestsellers list for the week, behind No Easy Day. Earlier this year, booksellers across the country said they wouldn't carry New Harvest titles because of its ties to Amazon, and Barnes & Noble confirmed it is not carrying the physical book in its stores.
Another notable nonfiction debut last week was Salman Rushdie's Joseph Anton, which sold just over 8,000 copies in its first week.
On Nielsen's overall bestseller list, there was a tight race for #1, with No Easy Day (80,000 copies sold) just edging Ken Follett's Winter of the World (77,000 copies sold) in its debut week. Mark Owen's book saw sales fall 54% from last week and, to date, the book has sold 510,000 copies. Fifty Shades of Grey was #3 overall with 75,000 copies sold in the week.
