Heeding the Siren’s Call

It’s not just a publishing fairy tale: in 2009, after failing to find an agent for her YA fantasy The Siren, Kiera Cass self-published the novel and began to build her fan base. She promoted the novel on her YouTube channel, attended conventions and book fairs, and solicited reviews from book blogs; in 2010, the Adventures in YA Publishing blog named The Siren the #1 Underappreciated YA Novel.

Things went a little differently with her next project: she secured an agent, HarperTeen picked her up, and 2012 saw the release of The Selection, a romance set in a post-WWIII United States. The Selection series—four novels and one novella—has since sold almost one million print copies, with a fifth and final novel pubbing in May. This week, HarperTeen released a new edition of The Siren—rewritten, edited, and redesigned—to sales of 11K print units. It debuts at #4 in Children’s Frontlist Fiction.

(See all of this week's bestselling books.)

Recapture the Magic

With 23K print units sold, Harry Potter Magical Creatures Coloring Book is #1 in Children’s Picture Books (and #4 overall). The #2 picture book? Harry Potter Coloring Book, with 12.5K print unit sold. As anticipation builds for the November 18 release of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie, expect to hear a lot more from Rowling: this week, the Fantastic Beasts book, credited to Potterverse character Newt Scamander, is #8 in Children’s Frontlist Fiction, with 5,425 print units sold. And the 2015 edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, featuring Jim Kay’s illustrations, is #9, with 5,143 print units sold.

Man Up

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, a hit in the novelist’s native Sweden, found modest success at first in the United States. Atria published Ove in July 2014, and it’s sold about 13K print units. But after the trade paperback edition pubbed in May 2015, bookseller enthusiasm helped the novel take off: numbers have been steadily building since release, and this week, it makes its debut on our Trade Paperback list, with 4,242 print units sold. Trade paper sales total 104.8K units to date. Backman’s second novel, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, pubbed in June 2015 and has sold more than 26K print units; Atria will publish his next book, Britt-Marie Was Here, in May.

New & Notable

NYPD Red 4

James Patterson and Marshall Karp
#1 Hardcover Fiction, #1 overall
The fourth installment in this series about an elite force within the New York City police department concerns a murder and jewel heist at a movie premiere.

The Bands of Mourning

Brandon Sanderson
#5 Hardcover Fiction
This is Sanderson’s third Wax and Wayne fantasy novel, set 300 years after his original Mistborn series.

The Swans of Fifth Avenue

Melanie Benjamin
#11 Hardcover Fiction
Following 2013’s The Aviator’s Wife, about Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Benjamin mines the friendship between Truman Capote and Babe Paley.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 NYPD Red 4 Patterson/Karp Little, Brown 29,863
2 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Marie Kondo Ten Speed 28,857
3 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi Random House 25,209
4 Harry Potter Magical Creatures Coloring Book – Scholastic 23,124
5 Prodigal Son Danielle Steel Dell 21,786
6 Spider Game Christine Feehan Jove 20,531
7 Spark Joy Marie Kondo Ten Speed 20,183
8 Blue Danielle Steel Delacorte 19,854
9 The Choice (movie tie-in) Nicholas Sparks Grand Central 17,448
10 Old School (Wimpy Kid #10) Jeff Kinney Abrams/Amulet 17,054

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.