Volume 260
Issue 14
04/08/2013
Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven and the latest Wimpy Kid title were the only books to sell over 300,000 print units in the first three months of 2013, according to Nielsen BookScan, but neither is in Amazon’s top 20 bestselling Kindle titles of the year, showing the disparity between print and e-book sales. In fact, only four titles were top sellers in both print and e-books in the quarter: Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl; James Patterson’s Alex Cross; Run, Nicholas Sparks’s Safe Haven; and E.L. James’s Fifty Shades Freed. All of those titles cracked both the BookScan and Kindle top 20.
Fiction continued its reign on Kindle, taking all 20 spots at the top of the chart. Within that lies another trend: self-published romance continued its rise, with seven of the 20 bestselling Kindle titles. Leading the way was Hopeless by Colleen Hoover, which is the #2 bestselling Kindle title of 2013 so far, outpaced only by Safe Haven. The self-published success stories all have at least one thing in common: a low price point. All seven are $3.99 or less. The average price of a top-20 Kindle bestseller is $6.68.
The top 20 print titles contained a healthy mix of formats and categories: six nonfiction titles and five children’s titles made the list. Of the latter, three Dr. Seuss books cracked the top 20, benefitting from the launch of a yearlong marketing campaign by Random House that started in March. In nonfiction, two religious titles—Proof of Heaven and Jesus Calling—were both in the top six, and the mass market edition of American Sniper by Chris Kyle reached #8, due in part to the author’s murder. Gillian Flynn was the biggest overall print and digital success story: her novel Gone Girl was the only title to make the top 10 in both lists.
Bestsellers, January - March 2013
| Nielsen Bookscan Top 20 | Amazon Kindle Top 20 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Proof of Heaven ($15.99) by Eben Alexander (Simon & Schuster) | 1. | Safe Haven ($5.69) by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central) |
| 2. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel ($13.95) by Jeff Kinney (Amulet) | 2. | Hopeless ($3.99)* by Colleen Hoover (Colleen Hoover) |
| 3. | A Memory of Light ($34.99) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 3. | Gone Girl ($12.99) by Gillian Flynn (Crown) |
| 4. | Green Eggs and Ham ($8.99) by Dr. Seuss (Random House Children’s Books) | 4. | Wait for Me ($2.99)* by Elisabeth Naughton (Amazon Digital Services) |
| 5. | Fifty Shades of Grey ($15.95) by E.L. James (Vintage) | 5. | Beautiful Creatures ($5.80) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) |
| 6. | Jesus Calling ($15.99) by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson) | 6. | Alex Cross, Run ($11.99) by James Patterson (Little, Brown) |
| 7. | One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish ($8.99) by Dr. Seuss (Random House Children’s Books) | 7. | The Forgotten ($8.89) by David Baldacci (Grand Central) |
| 8. | American Sniper ($9.99) by Chris Kyle (William Morrow) | 8. | Someone to Love ($2.99)* by Addison Moore (Amazon Digital Services) |
| 9. | Shred ($24.99) by Ian K. Smith (St. Martin’s) | 9. | Beautiful Darkness ($6.03) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) |
| 10. | Gone Girl ($25.00) by Gillian Flynn (Crown) | 10. | The Silver Linings Playbook ($7.99) by Matthew Quick (FSG/Sarah Crichton Books) |
| 11. | Alex Cross, Run ($28.99) by James Patterson (Little, Brown) | 11. | The Host ($5.45) by Stephenie Meyer (Back Bay) |
| 12. | Lean In ($24.95) by Sheryl Sandberg (Knopf) | 12. | Fallen Too Far ($0.99)* by Abbi Glines (Abbi Glines) |
| 13. | Betrayal ($7.99) by Danielle Steel (Dell) | 13. | Fifty Shades Freed ($9.99) by E.L. James (Vintage) |
| 14. | The Innocent ($9.99) by David Baldacci (Vision) | 14. | A Week in Winter ($12.99) by Maeve Binchy (Knopf) |
| 15. | Killing Kennedy ($28.00) by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (Holt) | 15. | Crazy Little Thing ($3.99) by Tracy Brogan (Montlake Romance) |
| 16. | Safe Haven ($14.99) by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central) | 16. | The Storyteller ($12.60) by Jodi Picoult (Atria/Emily Bestler) |
| 17. | Fifty Shades Darker ($15.95) by E.L. James (Vintage) | 17. | Tall, Dark, and Deadly (3 Book Box Set) ($2.99)* by Lisa Renee Jones (Julia Patra Publishing) |
| 18. | Fifty Shades Freed ($15.95) by E.L. James (Vintage) | 18. | Never Too Far ($3.99)* by Abbi Glines (Abbi Glines) |
| 19. | The Cat in the Hat ($8.99) by Dr. Seuss (Random House Children’s Books) | 19. | Collide (Volume 1) ($3.99)* by Gail McHugh (Gail McHugh) |
| 20. | The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book ($12.95) by Jeff Kinney (Amulet) | 20. | The Perks of Being a Wallflower ($7.31) by Stephen Chbosky (MTV Books) |
| Nielsen BookScan (week ending March 31, 2013) | Amazon Kindle (as of April 3, 2013) | ||
*Self-published
