Bestseller Stat Shot
Ah, yes, the new year. Time to start making good on all those self-improvement resolutions—dropping bad habits or extra pounds, picking up wealth and success. What better way to kick off the campaign than with a guidebook? Our Hardcover Nonfiction list this week is noticeably tilted toward self-improvement, with five of the top 10 books concerned, in one way or another, with getting you fitter, richer, or more spiritually assuaged. Dig a little deeper and sales of health and fitness titles are surging, with unit sales of the 100 bestselling books in that category up 22% over the week prior. Here are unit sales of the top-selling health and fitness titles this week, last week, and a month ago.
Hosts Rose Fox and Mark Rotella talk with Sara Eckel about her new book, It’s Not You: 27 (Wrong) Reasons You’re Single (Penguin/Perigee). Plus, PW senior writer Andrew Albanese talks about the year’s top library stories.
From the Newsletters
Max Tegmark, author of Our Mathematical Universe (Knopf), on why all of life’s big questions can be answered by math.
Members of writing community OneFourKidLit challenged each other to write over the holidays. But who took top word-count honors?
How the Nicholas Grivel Agency found success by importing graphic novels.
The most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America, by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld (Penguin Press).
Blogs
Nine great books that don’t exist. How many have you not read?
Let’s talk about classics—as in, what makes a classic a classic?
Is there really all that big a difference between winter and summer reads?
Authors
A shut-in goes on a crazy adventure in Rachel Cantor’s debut novel, A Highly Unlikely Scenario (Melville). We talk with her about how the book came together, and what happened when she realized something had to... happen.
Podcasts
PW senior writer Andrew Albanese discusses what the new year might hold for Barnes & Noble, after a rocky 2013.
Events
If you’re going to Philadelphia for ALA Midwinter or the ABA Winter Institute, come see us! At ALA, we’ll be at booth #818, where you can meet with PW senior writer Andrew Albanese and reviews editor Annie Coreno, along with contributing editors Peter Brantley, Brian Kenney (The P&L Sheet), and Michael Kelley (Check It Out!), as well as Margaux DelGiudice and Rose Luna (Cut to the Core).
Also, PW senior bookselling editor Judith Rosen, West Coast correspondent Wendy Werris, and sales rep Ted Olczak will be making the rounds at ABA.
