Facts & Figures 2014
See separate adult and children's guidelines below:
Adult Books
Publishers Weekly is once again getting ready to compile its annual bestseller list based on publishers’ sales reports in four categories: hardcovers; trade paperbacks; mass market paperbacks; and e-books. The children's department is also compiling a list. This information will be printed in a Special Report on 2013 Facts & Figures in the March 17 issue. We need to hear from you no later than Friday, February 21.
As in the past, these lists are based on publishers' SALES figures, not in-print figures. Please note that we are interested only in 2013 trade sales―that is, sales to bookstores (including e-retail sales from online booksellers), wholesalers, and libraries exclusively. Do not include sales units based on book clubs, overseas and direct mail transactions. Please be as accurate as possible (do not round off figures), and adjust 2013 shipped and billed sales to reflect returns through February 1, 2014. We will NOT accept any in-print figures for placement on the list–sales figures only. Please note that we have access to sales are reported by Nielsen outlets and will be checking publishers submission against the Nielsen reports for omissions or inconsistencies.
Please submit your lists to Daisy by mail or as an e-mail attachment (the latter is preferred). If you send an attachment, please make it a Word attachment, and make sure it is easily readable and printable.
Please see the instructions for each of the four categories below.
HARDCOVERS
We need your SALES figures on adult titles, published in 2012 and 2013, that have sold more than 100,000 copies in the calendar year 2013. We would also like sales information on any hardcover book published before 2013 that showed up on last year’s weekly lists. Again, please note that we are interested only in 2013 trade sales. To compile this list and to write the accompanying article we also need the following information:
** Exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all books for which you are submitting 2013 sales figures. Please submit separate lists for your fiction and nonfiction adult titles.
** If there is anything interesting or newsworthy about the book’s road to bestsellerdom (record sales figures, a promotion or event that had a major impact on the book’s rise to the top, etc.), please include that information.
PAPERBACKS
For this list, we need two separate categories of submission: mass market and trade paper. No need to separate fiction from nonfiction in your paperback submissions but please submit separate lists for mass market and trade paper.
For mass market, please send exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all titles that sold more than 350,000 copies in 2013.
For trade paper, please send exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all titles that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2013.
E-BOOKS
We would like information on any adult e-book for which your company sold more than 50,000 copies in 2013. E-book sales should be reported separately, and not combined with print sales. Also, please do not list free e-books—only books that have been purchased. For each e-book title you report, please include the author, publisher/imprint, number of copies sold, and the book's original year of print publication, as well as the month and year of e-book publication.
We need this information in writing no later than February 21. If you have any problems meeting this deadline or if you have any questions, please e-mail me at dmaryles@publishersweekly.com; for queries on children's/YA books, contact Diane Roback.
We thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Daisy Maryles
Publishers Weekly
Children's Books
Publishers Weekly is once again compiling its yearly bestseller lists, based on publishers’ sales reports. This list will be printed in the 2013 Facts & Figures feature in our March 17 issue. We need your responses by Friday, February 21.We are requesting your sales figures (not in-print figures) on hardcover children’s books, published in 2013, that sold more than 100,000 copies in the calendar year 2013. Also supply figures on your bestselling backlist hardcovers that sold over 100,000 copies last year. In addition, we’d like information on paperback frontlist titles (originals or reprints published in 2013) that sold over 100,000 copies, paperback backlist titles that sold over 100,000 copies, and e-books that sold over 25,000. Please note that we have access to sales that are reported by Nielsen BookScan outlets and will be checking publisher submissions against BookScan for omissions or inconsistencies. Some of the information submitted may end up listed on our Web site, not in the printed magazine.
Please supply us with five separate lists (hardcover frontlist, hardcover backlist, paperback frontlist, paperback backlist, e-books), and please list the books by those categories, not by your imprints. List titles in descending order, beginning with the biggest selling title, and include sales figures. Include sales from boxed sets as well. (Titles in boxed sets should be counted once, in the total sales for that title; please don’t include a separate listing for boxed sets.) Do not combine e-book sales with any print category – e-books will be a separate list.
Here are the categories that are needed:
Hardcover Frontlist: more than 100,000 copies
Hardcover Backlist: more than 100,000 copies
Paperback Frontlist: more than 100,000 copies
Paperback Backlist: more than 100,000 copies
E-books: more than 25,000 units
We are only interested in 2013 trade sales – that is, sales to bookstores, wholesalers, and libraries. Do not include sales units based on book club transactions, catalog sales, etc. Please be as accurate as possible (do not round off figures) and adjust 2013 shipped-and-billed sales to reflect returns through January 31, if at all possible. We cannot accept in-print figures for placement on the lists.
For all titles you are submitting, please supply author, illustrator, publisher/imprint, publication date, and number of copies sold. Please list complete first and last names for both author and illustrator. If a title is available in more than one edition, please tally up the sales figures and list the title just once, noting the different editions.
For backlist titles, also include original year of publication, not the date of the book’s most recent reissue. For backlist publication information and years, you are invited to view last year’s article, so you can re-use the information we ran last time: http://pwne.ws/YmoKPJ
Please be sure to write out each exact book title (including “The” or “A” at the beginning of the title, when it exists). Do not use ampersands if the word “and” is written out in the title. Also, please use “10” or “Ten” accurately, to reflect how the word actually appears on the book, as well as words like “Christmas” vs. “Xmas.” We need the title exactly as it appears on the book cover.
If a book you are reporting is part of a series, list the series title in parentheses, after the actual book title, and if relevant please tell us what number in the series the title is.
List board books in the hardcover category. Please add the words (board book edition) in parentheses just after the book title, so that we can distinguish this edition from the original.
We will not be including coloring books, activity books, workbooks, and non-book products in this listing (i.e. calendars, kits, book-and-doll packages), so please do not include them in your submissions.
If you are releasing a new edition (a movie tie-in edition, for instance) of a title that has previously been available in either hardcover or softcover, be sure to explain that, so that we don’t get the titles confused.
Info for e-books list: Supply to us information on any e-books for which your company sold more than 25,000 units in 2013. E-book sales should be reported separately, not combined with print sales. Also, please do not list free e-books – only books that have been purchased. Please combine frontlist and backlist, and submit just one combined e-book list to us. For each e-book title you report, please supply the author, illustrator if applicable, publisher/imprint, number of copies sold, and the book’s original year of print publication, as well as the month and year of e-book publication.
If you are generating a report on a spreadsheet, and if the titles of the books have been abbreviated on that spreadsheet, please rework the list into a form that provides us with complete title and author information, which also shows the book’s specific imprint. Also, if the report was supplied to you by your sales department, please go over it carefully to be sure that all information about the book is complete and accurate, all illustrators have been included, etc.
Please submit your lists to me by mail or as an e-mail attachment. If you are emailing an attachment, please make it a Word attachment, and make sure it is easily readable and printable, with your company’s name written at the top of the Word file. If you are sending an Excel sheet, please do not e-mail it, as Excel documents can be difficult to print out, and tabs are easily missed. Our mailing address is Publishers Weekly, 49 West 23rd Street, Ninth Floor, New York, NY 10010.
If you have any problems meeting the deadline, or if you have any questions, please e-mail me and put Facts and Figures into your subject line.
If you do not have any books that qualify for this list, there is no need to respond. And there is no need to include art with your listings.
Many thanks for all your hard work! I know this info can be time-consuming to put together, and it is much appreciated. Also, please let me know if this letter should be sent to someone other than you, so I can adjust our records.
Diane Roback
Children’s Book Editor
Publishers Weekly
