Bestseller Stat Shot
The Silkworm (LB/Mulholland), the new mystery from J.K. Rowling, writing as Robert Galbraith, debuts at #4 on our Hardcover Fiction bestseller list, having sold just over 21,000 print copies in its first four days on sale. The book is one of the more high-profile titles to be caught up in the Amazon-Hachette dispute (see “Is Amazon Really the Devil?,” June 9); it was unavailable for preorder on Amazon and there were significant shipping delays on the print edition, which took a bite out of print unit sales. And while a #4 spot on the bestseller list would be a fantastic debut position for almost any author, for Rowling, it’s a rather weak start. Granted, The Cuckoo’s Calling, the first Galbraith novel, sold all of 87 copies its first week on sale. But sales skyrocketed after it was discovered that Galbraith is a pseudonym and Rowling was unmasked as the book’s author. Here are the debut sales figures for each of Rowling’s past few books, including the aforementioned sales spike for Cuckoo.
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Blogs
“How will the Cross Word Puzzle craze react on the radiocasting industry?” asked PW in the July 5, 1924 issue. More archival gems and book-world ephemera can be found at our Tumblr.
A bookseller’s tips on how to talk about Amazon with customers.
Podcasts
Author Karen Harrington discusses her new middle-grade novel, Courage for Beginners (Little, Brown), and how she balances dark and hopeful elements in her stories.
On the booming growth in the pop culture festival circuit.
Is bigger better? PW senior writer Andrew Albanese on Hachette’s acquisition of Perseus.
Paul Raeburn discusses his new book, Do Fathers Matter? (Scientific American). Plus, PW editorial director Jim Milliot provides a rundown of our new ranking of the world’s largest publishers in 2013.
And be sure to check out our extended coverage of the annual global publisher ranking, including profiles of each company.
The most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard, by John Branch (Norton).
