Bestseller Stat Shot
Back in June, we looked at the impact that the Amazon-Hachette dispute was having on the publisher’s bestselling titles (“Is Amazon Really the Devil?,” June 9)—presumably those hit hardest by the retailer’s decision to no longer take preorders for Hachette titles and to hold so little Hachette stock that some orders couldn’t be filled for several weeks. But, as it turned out, Hachette’s most popular titles were faring better than in the same period in 2013.
Things haven’t changed. Looking at the past four weeks of print unit sales data, Hachette has more books among the 100 bestselling titles in the country than it did in the same period in 2013, and the total unit sales of Hachette’s bestselling books are up 11%. Here’s how it breaks down.
2014
| Week ending | June 29 | July 6 | July 13 | July 20 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titles in top 100 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 13 | |
| Highest rank | 3 | 3 | 7 | 11 | |
| Combined weekly | 152,375 | 147,725 | 162,748 | 141,416 | 604,264 |
2013
| Week ending | June 30 | July 7 | July 14 | July 21 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titles in top 100 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 9 | |
| Highest rank | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | |
| Combined weekly | 173,163 | 150,953 | 124,888 | 94,557 | 543,561 |
From the Newsletters
The future of food? National Geographic is on the case.
How Marc Brown and R.L. Stine ended up collaborating on The Little Shop of Monsters, coming next summer from Little, Brown.
Longtime Roberto Bolaño translator Chris Andrews, author of Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction: An Expanding Universe (Columbia Univ.), makes the case for why Distant Star should be required reading.
Talking with Mosab Hassan Yousef, whose memoir, Son of Hamas (Tyndale), about his life as a double agent spying on Hamas for Israel, is being made into a film.
Blogs
Some things you may have missed if you haven’t visited the PW Tumblr lately: the definition of “hemidemisemiquaver,” great first pages in literary history, and more.
What kinds of books are kids reading this summer? A report from a children’s bookseller.
Podcasts
Mary E. Pearson discusses The Kiss of Deception (Henry Holt), the first book in her Remnant Chronicles series, as well as how to keep secrets from readers (without tricking them).
PW senior writer Andrew Albanese discusses the new developments in the Amazon-Hachette dispute, including Amazon’s bid to assuage author concerns and how the PR war is playing out.
The most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (Random).
Sharona Muir discusses her new novel, Invisible Beasts (Bellevue Literary), in which a woman discovers she has the rare ability to see unusual and mysterious creatures. Then PW editorial director Jim Milliot explains how changes at one book distributor could affect the entire publishing industry.
