Bestseller Stat Shot
New York City is the star of two bestsellers that were published last week: City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg’s 900-plus-page paean to gritty 1970s Manhattan (and surely the novel of the season), which lands at #6 on the Frontlist Fiction chart, and Humans of New York: Stories, the latest installment to Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York canon, in at #2 on our Frontlist Nonfiction chart. Perhaps not surprisingly, New York was the DMA where both did the most business. Here’s how and where both sold in print out of the gate.
| City on Fire | Humans of New York: Stories | |
|---|---|---|
| First-week sales | 11,190 | 51,879 |
| % copies sold in N.Y.C. | 27% | 15% |
| % copies sold in second-most-popular DMA | 5% | 6% |
| % copies sold in urban areas | 32% | 34% |
| % copies sold in rural areas | 32% | 29% |
From the Newsletters
Christopher Carduff, editor of John Updike: Selected Poems (Knopf), picks the 10 best Updike books.
Remembering two-time Caldecott Honoree Vera B. Williams, who died recently at age 88.
The big cookbooks coming in November.
Three tips from indie author Bill Gourgey. No. 1: know where your audience hangs out.
Attention librarians! Sign up for our newest newsletter, PW Preview for Librarians, to get an early heads-up on each week’s starred reviews. Sign up for it and our other great, free newsletters.
The most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was Second Empire by Richie Hofmann (Alice James).
Blogs
A skull made of books, and Susan Sontag in a bear suit: these and more can be found on PW’s Tumblr.
What happens when David Sedaris comes to your town for a book signing.
Podcasts
PW editorial director Jim Milliot breaks down the findings from our latest salary survey, which reveals a younger, not-very-diverse workforce.
Bestselling author Rick Riordan talks about The Sword of Summer (Disney-Hyperion), the first book in his latest myth-driven series, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.
Bookseller Alan Beatts explains how readers saved Borderlands Books.
Publishers Weekly and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair present Global Kids Connect, a one-of-a-kind event on the best strategies to engage the children’s and young adult book market on a global scale. Register today, and we’ll see you on December 2.
