A few opening observations before diving into PW’s annual breakdown of adult bestsellers by publisher. In addition to having a new look, this year’s edition excludes a ranking of mass market paperback bestsellers. With the format’s market share steadily falling—it stood at about 3% in 2024 based on Circana BookScan data—PW dropped the weekly mass market bestseller list at the beginning of the year. This year’s rankings are focused on hardcover fiction and nonfiction as well as trade paperback, and are derived by multiplying the 20 weekly bestseller slots given to each of the three formats by 52 weeks. That leaves 1,040 spots for each list.
The results show that the Big Five publishers held their usual tight grip on hardcover bestsellers, with one publisher taking a notable leap forward: Macmillan, which usually is fifth in hardcover bestseller market share, jumped up to third place, thanks in part to the strong showing of The Women by Kristin Hannah. Overall, the Big Five accounted for nearly 86% of all hardcover positions on the PW fiction and nonfiction lists.
Independent publishers had a much better chance to make the trade paperback list, and Sourcebooks once again dominated that format’s ranking. (Though majority-owned by Penguin Random House, Sourcebooks remains structurally and operationally separate from PRH.)
2024 Hardcover Fiction & Nonfiction Bestseller positions
