The (Bookselling) Force Awakens
The box office record-shattering debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is driving its own wave of bestselling tie-in books. Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Star Wars continues its run on our Hardcover Fiction list, landing this week at #17. It has plenty of company: eight Star Wars titles feature among the week’s 100 bestselling books across all categories. Here’s how they fared:
Title | Author | Publisher | Unit Sales |
---|---|---|---|
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary | Pablo Hidalgo | DK | 39,633 |
Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know | Bray/Horton | DK | 23,647 |
Star Wars The Force Awakens: Before the Awakening | Greg Rucka | Disney/Lucasfilm | 22,461 |
Star Wars: 5-Minute Star Wars Stories | - | Disney/Lucasfilm | 20,463 |
The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Phil Szostak | Abrams | 18,465 |
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections | Fry/Remillard | DK | 17,471 |
Star Wars Electronic Reader | - | Phoenix International | 15,510 |
Art of Coloring: Star Wars | Saunier-Talec/Vallet | Disney Editions | 15,127 |
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
Holiday Hits
We took a look at the books that sold the most between Black Friday and the end of the year, to see what the big titles were for this year’s holiday gift-buying season. Coloring books and Star Wars tie-ins (more on both of those above and below) added some variety to the stalwart bestsellers that usually dominate the charts, but the wild card among the season’s top titles ended up being a joke book for kids. Here are the season’s top five titles.
Title | Author | Publisher | Unit Sales |
---|---|---|---|
Old School (Wimpy Kid #10) | Jeff Kinney | Abrams/Amulet | 821,555 |
Lost Ocean | Johanna Basford | Penguin | 335,620 |
Killing Reagan | O’Reilly/Dugard | Holt | 323,121 |
Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids | Rob Elliott | Revell | 290,334 |
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime | Ree Drummond | Morrow | 278,737 |
*Print unit sales are from Nov. 23–Dec. 27
Color Me Christmas
Coloring books were the big trend of the year, and definitely the big gift item of the season. A quick look at our Paperback list shows just how huge the category has become: 13 of the 25 books on the list are coloring books, including the top five, clearing a combined total of more than 325K print units last week. Coloring books also appear on our Overall list as well as our Hardcover Nonfiction list and Children’s Picture Book list.
Top 10 Overall
Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Old School (Wimpy Kid #10) | Jeff Kinney | Abrams | 133,037 |
2 | Lost Ocean | Johanna Basford | Penguin | 96,406 |
3 | Killing Reagan | O’Reilly/Dugard | Holt | 84,347 |
4 | Enchanted Forest | Johanna Basford | Laurence King | 64,263 |
5 | Rogue Lawyer | John Grisham | Doubleday | 63,815 |
6 | The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime | Ree Drummond | Morrow | 62,824 |
7 | Secret Garden | Johanna Basford | Laurence King | 60,657 |
8 | Cross Justice | James Patterson | Little, Brown | 57,090 |
9 | Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids | Rob Elliott | Revell | 55,810 |
10 | Guinness World Records 2016 | – | Guinness World Records | 52,233 |
All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.