A little mystery by a debut writer got everyone talking on social media last month, after that unknown writer was revealed to be none other than Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. “No big surprise that The Cuckoo’s Calling was the #1 book for the month,” said Jeff Costello, v-p of CoverCake, which measures how books are faring on social media. “Comments on the book skyrocketed when J.K. Rowling was outed as the author of the book midmonth, catapulting it from obscurity to the top spot in only one day. It was truly amazing to see the volume of comments on this book over a 24-hour period.”
Cuckoo’s Calling had nearly twice as many comments as the next most-talked about book, Dan Brown’s Inferno. It also enjoyed a fairly equal split of male to female chatter, with 45% of the buzz coming from men.
Along with Inferno, Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, Stephen King’s Joyland, and Max Brooks’s World War Z held steady on the list, and Rick Riordan owned the distinction of having two titles on the chart. Costello said Riordan’s twofer was “driven by excitement over the fall release of his new book, House of Hades, coupled with the promotion surrounding the movie adaptation of his book The Sea of Monsters, releasing early next month.”
New books to the list this month were Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich and The English Girl by Daniel Silva.
CoverCake’s Top 10 Books in Social Media, July 2013
| Rank | Title | Author | Scale* | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Cuckoo’s Calling | Robert Gailbraith/J.K. Rowling | 10 | 45% | 55% |
| 2 | Inferno | Dan Brown | 6 | 39 | 61 |
| 3 | Lean In | Sheryl Sandberg | 5 | 18 | 82 |
| 4 | Catching Fire | Suzanne Collins | 5 | 37 | 63 |
| 5 | World War Z | Max Brooks | 3 | 51 | 49 |
| 6 | Big Girl Panties | Stephanie Evanovich | 3 | 32 | 68 |
| 7 | Joyland | Stephen King | 2 | 52 | 48 |
| 8 | House of Hades | Rick Riordan | 2 | 39 | 61 |
| 9 | Sea of Monsters | Rick Riordan | 2 | 22 | 78 |
| 10 | The English Girl | Daniel Silva | 1 | 47 | 53 |
