Sales of the first two titles from James Patterson’s new Bookshots imprint--a Little, Brown line featuring short, plot-driven books--came out of the gate strong. The books, according to Nielsen BookScan, moved a combined total of about 30,000 copies during their first week on sale.

Patterson’s Cross Kill, a new installment in his popular Alex Cross crime series, sold just under 18,000 copies according to Bookscan, placing it second on PW's latest trade paperback bestseller list, for the week ending June 12.

Zoo 2, the second Book Shots title and a sci-fi thriller by Patterson and Max DiLallo, sold nearly 12,000 copies per BookScan, landing at #5 on our trade paperback list.

The BookShots imprint, an initiative overseen by Patterson, is designed to encourage reading by crafting short novels—all titles in the series are less than 150 pages—that retail for about $5. Little, Brown released the first two titles last week with 500,000 first printings.

BookShots plans to release two to four titles a month. The line will focus on genre fiction, while including some nonfiction titles about current events.