The Secret easily outdistanced all competition as the bestselling title in the first half of 2007, based on figures compiled by Nielsen BookScan. The hardcover edition of The Secret sold just short of 2.3 million through outlets monitored by BookScan, while the audio sold 372,000 copies. The combination gave S&S seven of the 20 top-selling titles in the period, tops among publishers.
The list includes all formats, and what is striking is the number of hardcovers that made the top 20 and the absence of any mass market paperbacks. The highest-ranking mass market was Judge and Jury at #22. The lack of paperbacks is another indication of how the market for mass market titles has shifted from traditional bookstores to nontraditional outlets not covered by BookScan.
RANK | FORMAT | TITLE | AUTHOR | PUBLISHER | UNIT SALES |
AU = audio HC = hardcover TP = trade paperback YA = young adult Source: Nielsen Bookscan | |||||
1 | HC | The Secret | Rhonda Byrne | S&S | 2,248,000 |
2 | HC | A Thousand Splendid Suns | Khaled Hosseini | Penguin | 578,000 |
3 | TP | The Memory Keeper's Daughter | Kim Edwards | Penguin | 560,000 |
4 | HC | You: On a Diet | Mehmet Oz & Michael Roizen | S&S | 552,000 |
5 | TP | The Measure of a Man | Sidney Poitier | Harper | 510,000 |
6 | TP | The Road | Cormac McCarthy | Random | 498,000 |
7 | HC | The Best Life Diet | Bob Greene | S&S | 459,000 |
8 | HC/YA | Forever in Blue | Ann Brashares | Random | 398,000 |
9 | TP | The Glass Castle: A Memoir | Jeannette Walls | S&S | 387,000 |
10 | HC | Step on a Crack | James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge | Hachette | 382,000 |
11 | AU | The Secret | Rhonda Byrne | S&S | 372,000 |
12 | TP | Eat, Pray, Love | Elizabeth Gilbert | Penguin | 356,000 |
13 | TP | The Kite Runner | Khaled Hosseini | Penguin | 343,000 |
14 | HC | The 6th Target | James Patterson & Maxine Paetro | Hachette | 337,000 |
15 | HC | A Long Way Gone | Ishmael Beah | FSG | 334,000 |
16 | HC | The Audacity of Hope | Barack Obama | Random | 315,000 |
17 | HC | Nineteen Minutes | Jodi Picoult | S&S | 307,000 |
18 | HC | For One More Day | Mitch Albom | Hyperion | 297,000 |
19 | HC | Einstein: His Life And Universe | Walter Isaacson | S&S | 295,000 |
20 | HC | The Dangerous Book for Boys | Conn & Hal Iggulden | Harper | 289,000 |