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Lower Unit Sales, Fewer Titles
For both fiction and nonfiction hardcover titles, name-brand recognition is the key to bestseller success. While that is not new, the 2011 annual chart had fewer than usual new players. In fiction, there were two novelists debuting in the top 30. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, with five titles, was perhaps the most successful franchise last year. [NOTE: this is a corrected version of the story that ran on 3/19/12].
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E-books Boom: E-books: Facts and Figures 2012
Last year was the first time PW gathered annual sales on e-books. Criteria were at least 10,000 copies or more sold during 2010’s 12 months and the publishers polled were the ones that also had print bestsellers. Not all publishers responded, and many submitted selected titles. Nevertheless, the annual list included about 275 titles, an impressive figure. With reports of e-book sales going through the roof last year, we wisely set 25,000 or more for this year’s cutoff point. The 2011 total for 25,000+ is even more impressive—340 titles; only 100 books on the 2010 list hit that mark. Unit sales for the e-books bestsellers also exploded. In 2010, five e-books had sales of 200,000 or more units; in 2011, a whopping 35 titles had sales of more than 200,000. Once again, there were publishers who did not want to share their e-book data while others shared selected titles.
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Less Is Just Less
Back in PW’s bestseller report of 2002, there were an astounding number of mass market bestsellers with sales over the million-copy mark. A total of eight books boasted sales of two million and more; an additional 39 claimed more than one million. That’s a dramatic contrast to the total of six million+ players noted in our 2012 report. Two current million-copy authors, John Grisham and Nora Roberts, were among the 2002 two million+, and Roberts had three on that list. The newcomer to the 2011 million-copy club is George R.R. Martin, with four books totaling more than 5.5-million copies.
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Hardcover Fiction and Nonfiction: Facts and Figures 2012
Hardcover Fiction Sales, 2011
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Lower Unit Sales, Fewer Titles
Please click here for the updated version of this article.
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Faith in Sports
It’s become a familiar sight: athletes dropping to their knees in prayer in the end zone or thanking God in their post-game press conferences. And books by and about sports stars who are vocal Christians have become an important part of many publishers’ lists.
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Publishers Catch the Linsanity
Jeremy Lin's rapid rise to fame is being matched step-for-step by publishers, who are featuring the instant star with a slew of instant print and e-books, focusing on everything from Lin's faith to his motivational tactics. And that's not to mention the number of unlicensed e-biographies that showed up just days after Lin started making waves on February 4, the night before the Super Bowl, in a game against the Nets.
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Playing the Game
Last fall, Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback, went on an impressive run—dare I say a miraculous one? (Others did, at the time.) Getting his first start in the sixth game of the season (Denver was 1–4), he led the Broncos to a division title and an astounding win in the playoffs against the Steelers before being knocked out by New England the next week.
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Still a Night to Remember
With the 100-year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic April 15, the number of books dedicated to the ship’s ill-fated voyage is impressive. Books of all categories—nonfiction and fiction for both children and adults—include historical narrative, scientific data, fully illustrated pop-ups.
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Child Care—a Major Growth Spurt: Parenting Books 2012
While there’s no particular baby boom to account for it—and in fact, a 2011 study by the Pew Research Center found that the recession resulted in a downtick in births—the parenting/child care category is experiencing a growth spurt. For last year’s survey of the field, we heard from more than 20 publishers about new titles. This year, some 44 publishers submitted information.
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On the Road Again: Travel Books 2012
It’s a strange new phenomenon: people who once couldn’t find Peru on a map are now planning a trip to Machu Picchu, or maybe one to that Thai restaurant—in Thailand—their neighbors raved about. Long-entrenched East Coast or West Coast residents are realizing that the U.S. has a large middle area—one with cities, art, people, food, and festivals—all worth visiting.
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Spring 2012 Children's Listings: Publishers G-L
Spring 2012 children's books. Publishers G-L.
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Digital Grows, But So Do Units
When Nick Palmer, a screenwriter based in Los Angeles, first started downloading audiobooks in the early 2000s, he describes a process only slightly less intensive than a medieval monk copying a manuscript.
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Spring 2012 Announcements: Spring Is Here!
Welcome to the season of hope and green shoots and new books. In this, our third season gathering our announcements with the help of Above the Treeline’s Edelweiss system, we had almost exactly 3,000 more titles to chose from than our Fall 2011 listings.
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Spring 2012 Announcements: History & Military History: War!
WWII and the American Civil War have been staples in military history publishing for years. But with the U.S. fighting two wars since 2003, modern conflicts take over the general history category this spring.
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Spring 2012 Announcements: Social Science: It’s All Local
As the 2012 presidential campaign shifts into high gear and talk of American values hits a fever pitch, this spring’s social science books offer a deeper dive for those not satisfied with the one-liners and sound bites offered on the campaign trail.
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Spring 2012 Announcements: Science: Genes Are in Season—Brains, Too
Out of the 60 notable science titles for spring 2012, six have the word “brain” in the title; four more have the words “gene” or “genetics.” And many other books are built on the foundations of neuroscience and genetics. You won’t learn much about the periodic table this season, but if you want to know how your brain (or your breasts) evolved, dopamine will flood your brain with pleasurable sensations.
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Spring 2012 Announcements: Comics & Graphic Novels: Persistence of Memoirs
This spring’s best graphic novels showcase the power of comics to capture personal memories as no other medium can, from a friendship with one of histories most shocking mass murderers to the life of James Joyce’s troubled daughter. Nonfiction comics also take a trip around the world, from the streets of Jerusalem to the avenues of Cleveland.
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Spring 2012 Announcements: Travel: Meander Is a River…
...in Turkey, that starts in the central highlands of the country and follows so many twists and turns to the Aegean Sea that it was never used for transport although it famously connected East and West. Jeremy Seal travels its route by kayak in Meander: East to West, Indirectly, Along a Turkish River, recalling the river’s famous history (Alexander the Great passed through on his way to conquer Asia) and meeting the mix of people settled along its banks.
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Spring 2012 Announcements: Sports: Olympians, Yogi & the Knuckler
This June, the Summer Olympics from London will be hard to escape, and there are no fewer than five books in the pages that follow that deal with the history of Olympic competition in one way or the other.
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