‘Becoming’ Is Top-Selling Title In 2018

Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, may have been released late in the year (its pub date was November 13), but that didn’t stop it from easily becoming the bestselling print book of 2018. According to NPD BookScan, Becoming sold 3.4 million print copies in the year, far outpacing Magnolia Table by Joanna Gaines, which was in second place with 1.3 million units sold. Obama’s sales peaked in the last full week before Christmas, when her memoir sold over 712,000 copies at outlets that report to BookScan. That figure topped the 710,000 copies it sold in its first week on sale.

Adult nonfiction Aas been the strongest performing category among the major publishing segments this year, and when the final figures are confirmed, unit sales will be up about 5% over 2017. That strength is reflected in the number of titles the category placed among the top 20 bestsellers of the year; the segment had 10 of the top 20 sellers. Two much-discussed Trump-related books, Fire and Fury and Fear, were numbers five and seven, respectively, on the year-end list.

The highest-ranking adult fiction title was the collaboration between James Patterson and Bill Clinton that produced The President Is Missing, which sold over 703,000 print copies, landing it in 10th place on the year-end bestsellers list. In all, only four adult fiction print titles made the top 20 bestseller list.

Six children’s books hit the top 20, led by Jeff Kinney’s The Meltdown, which was #4 with 1.1 million copies sold.

Last year also appears to have been a better year for frontlist than 2017. Five books sold more than one million print copies in 2018, all of which were new books. Only four backlist titles cracked the top 20. In 2017, the two bestselling titles were the backlist books Wonder and Milk and Honey.

Print Bestsellers, 2018