Good Grief -- Why Don't You Update This Thing?

Some new information has come out on the bestselling books of 2007, and it's fascinating stuff...

First, there were nine novels that sold a million copies last year, according to Publishers Weekly (in fact, all the numbers in this column will be based on the most recent issue of PW): Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Playing for Pizza, Double Cross, The Choice, Lean Mean Thirteen, Plum Lovin, Eclipse, and Book of the Dead. I don't know how many of those you read but I can tell you it was a great year for Janet Evanovich, and that Pizza is one of Grisham's clunkers. Ugh.

Second, there were sort-of seven nonfiction hardcover books that sold a million copies last year: The Secret, The Dangerous Book for Boys, Decelptively Delicious, You: Staying Young, I Am America (and so can you), Become a Better You, and, apparently, The Daring Book for Girls. My reason for saying there were "sort of" seven books is because the recorded sales for that last book was exactly one million copies... which would have been an amazing coincidence. (On an honest note, You: On a Diet came in less than 2000 copies short of a million.)

Third, there were eleven trade paperback titles that hit the magic mark: Eat Pray Love, The Kite Runner, Water for Elephants, The Road, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, The Pillars of the Earth, Love in the Time of Cholera, 90 Minutes in Heaven, Jeusalem Countdown, Middlesex, and Measure of a Man. And no, I'm not kidding... John Hagee's Jerusalem really did sell more than a million copies. Unbelievable.

Fourth, there were sixteen mass market novels that sold a million copies. I won't list them all by title, but Nora Roberts held places #1 and #3, and James Patterson held #2, 4, 5, and 6.

Fifth, the only children's book to pass the million mark was Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, though it first released ten years ago. James Patterson, who apparently has cloned himself in order to write in every genre, fell 250 copies short of a million with Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever.

Some interesting facts:

-Of the more than four million books in print last year, 44 hit the million mark.

-Of the 250,000 NEW books published last year, 17 of them sold a million copies. (That would be .00006.) 

-If we assume selling 200,000 copies is the mark of a breakout book, there were 62 hardcover novels, 63 hardcover nonfiction titles, and 71 trade paperbacks that hit the big time.

-If we assume selling 500,000 is the bar for making it big in mass market, there were 90 titles that made it.

-It was nice to see some literary fiction do well, particularly in the trade papers. The Kite Runner, Water for Elephants, The Road, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and Love in the Time of Cholera are not your fast commercial reads.

-Some things just keep selling. Love in the Time of Cholera was released in 1985 (nice to see what Oprah can do for you, isn't it?). Pillars of the Earth was released in 1989.

-Readers continue to fall in love with novelists and stay with them. I can't count the number of James Patterson titles on all these lists. Similarly we see a lot of Nicholas Sparks, Janet Evanovich, David Baldacci, Nora Roberts, Mary Higgins Clark, and Debbie Macomber.

-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the bestselling book of all last year, selling more than thirteen million copies. That's now the bestselling fiction series of all time.

-The Secret was the next bestselling book. Booksellers moved 4,590,000 copies, just outpacing the trade paperback edition of Eat, Pray, Love. The only other books to pass the two million mark were Kite Runner, Thousand Splended Suns, and Blood Brothers.

-Joel Osteen must live a charmed life. His Become a Better You sold 1,181,173 copies, which is amazing.

-The bestselling Christian book last year belonged to my good buddy Cec Murphey, whose 90 Minutes in Heaven sold 1,273,000 in trade paper -- not bad for a book that came out back in 2006.

-It's amazing to see how many good Christian books sold 100,000 copies or more. Thomas Nelson is all over the list with titles from Emerson Eggerichs, Beth Moore, Billy Graham, Max Lucado, Robin McGraw, Chip Davis, John Maxwell, Deborah Norville, Bill Cosby, John MacArthur, and Dave Ramsey. Mike Hyatt, the Prez at Thomas Nelson, deserves a parade. I don't know if there is a better-run company in publishing.

-Tyndale also had several titles on the >100,000 list, by authors like Karen Kingsbury and Joel Rosenberg. (And it should be noted that Tony Dungy's Quiet Strength sold 820,124 copies in hardcover.)

-It's always nice to see small books do well -- Deborah Rodriguez's The Kabul Beauty School sold 102,000 copies. A.J. Jacob's The Year of Living Biblically sold 113,000 copies.

-It's always nice to see old friends do well -- Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five sold 125,000 copies, 38 years after its release. And Horton Hatches teh Egg sold more than a quarter million copies 67 years after its first release. (Hop on Pop passed the half million mark last year, and The Cat in the Hat came close to that.)

-It's always nice to see a jerk fall on his face. For all the hoopla John Dean got, the publicity-seeking ex-con who turned on his friends in order to cut a deal had plenty of media, but tepid sales. Ditto famous nutjob atheist Richard Dawkins -- for all the press the guy gets, his book barely topped the 100,000 mark.

-Sometimes there's just no telling... United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's book My Grandfather's Son sold 283,000 copies. So did Jeff Foxworthy's Redneck Dictionary III. My guess is they weren't bought by the same people.

Comments

[Julie @ Word Chicks]

Thanks for this excellent and interesting synopsis, Chip. I feel completely in the loop now.

I didn't realize my reference section was lacking...guess I'd better run right out and pick up Jeff Foxworthy's latest.

[Richard Mabry]

Chip,
Welcome back to the blog-o-sphere. Glad to hear that the reports of your demise were either greatly exaggerated or, at least, premature.
Thanks for the information. I'm speaking to a regional convention of church librarians this summer, and you've just written at least a fourth of my talk.

[Steven Polansky]

That's an interesting statement about the Tony Dunge book, but from everything I've heard it's not accurate. I'm sure Tyndale paid a lot for the acquisition (definitely well worth whatever it paid) but I was told by a competitor of Tyndale that it offered more than Tyndale offered but still didn't get the book. This person also said it went well below what a big house probably should have paid for it.

[Susan Page Davis]

Thanks for bringing us this, Chip. I always wonder when you talk about these lists why Harry Potter isn't considered a children's book but The Golden Compass is. Puh-leeze! I've read a couple of those and they're definitely for kids.

[Ashley Weis]

Welcome back! Glad to see some literary fiction doing well. And to hear that Mr. Dawkin's fell on his face.

[janet]

yes, i'd almost given up checking your blog for a new post. thought you opted for permanent vacation. this was a very interesting post. the Oprah factor is mind-blowing. people read whatever she tells them to! amazing. Harry Potter's Deathly Hallows was truly worthy in my opinion. i've read it multiple times. someone just gave me Water for Elephants and told me i HAD to read. i've also got Memory Keeper's Daughter here in my pile, waiting. hey, don't forget, the Bible is the all time best-seller, isn't it? that goes without saying. now here's a mind-blowing fact i learned in my math class the other night: if you have ten books, there are over 3 million possible ways you can arrange them on your shelf. it's true. isn't that crazy?? peace, brother chip.

[Rusty Shelton]

Welcome back, Chip--and nice overview. Very interesting to see how much staying power 90 Minutes has developed. Kudos to Baker for their solid work with that title.

[Tiffany Stuart]

This post had me smiling many times. I've always loved your voice. Honest.

Appreciate you sharing the hard facts of publishing. Only write what you love, that way you will enjoy the process even if it fails to make it's way past first printing.

We all hope for that big break. Better yet an Oprah interview.

[Rob Sargeant]

That is good news about the success of literary fiction. It shows that there's a growing number of discerning readers out there.

[Jess]

Arggggh! I hate it when I write a long comment and lose it!! So I'll make this one shorter and sweeter.

Your reference to Eclipse is Stephenie Meyer's YA (I think) -- the 3rd in her Twilight series. This is a romancy vampire series and each book is close to 600 words. The first was her debut novel. Okay... a debut YA novel almost 600 words? I'm totally confused by the publishing industry.

My daughter just consumed all three books this past week. There's a 4th one coming out in August as well as a movie. But get this: the story is set in Forks, WA and the Chamber of Commerce is having a blast--and lots of hits:
http://www.forkswa.com/65.html
Check it out. You can visit some of the sites in Stephenie's books. What fun and how smart.

[Dee Stewart]

You are a peach for compiling all this wow. And I might be one of those readers who would read both Thomas and Foxworthy, although I only like the latter. :)

[Tiffany Colter]

Hey Chip,

What do you think of this new division Harper Collins started? This is the beginning of the Wall Street Journal Article

"Marking a radical departure from traditional book-publishing practices, HarperCollins Publishers says it will launch a new book imprint that won't accept returns from retailers or pay advances to authors.

To be headed by veteran publishing executive Robert S. Miller, the imprint also likely won't pay for more desirable display space in the front of bookstores, a common practice. Instead, the as-yet-unnamed unit will share its profit with writers and focus much of its sales efforts on the Internet, where a growing portion of book sales are shifting."

Sounds like a writer who has excellent marketing skills and a firmly established platform may benefit from this but someone without a strong fan base....well, wouldn't.

I'd love your unique perspective on this.

Tiffany Colter

[Pam Halter]

I'd like to vent a little here. I'm so sick and tired of seeing publishing houses that pay NO advance! Are things really that bad so as to keep publishing houses from investing in their authors? How can an author make a living without advance royalties? How can an agent make a living the same way?

It's all very frustrating.

[erin]

I was so impressed by some of the books you've listed on here. I'm typically not a fantasy reader, but I was floored by The Deathly Hallows. It deserves every accolade it receives. I just talked my mom into reading the HP series and I was so jealous she got to read them all for the first time. That book was crazy beautiful. And, despite not being much of a fantasy reader (I'm into Narnia, but that's it), I also got into the Twilight series early this year. LOVE them. The third book in the series, Eclipse, is my favorite so far. I've been recommending them non-stop. Stephenie Meyer is a great writer and, for writers who need a little pick me up, her journey to bookness is pretty incredible. The first book, Twilight, got started with a vivid dream (I love stories like that! :). It's a fun publishing story to read and she's so unsnobby and cool when she talks about writing. I can see why teens - and, uh, not-so-teens :) like her work. Both of those writers turned "fantasy" into this beautiful glittery metaphor for human desire. I loved that. There are books that blow my mind because they're straight up literary stunners (like right now I'm reading Their Eyes Were Watching God. Just the first paragraph ... my WORD!!) but those books were special to me in a whole different way. They reminded me of just how much I love to read. I walked around with my nose stuck in a book for days and didn't want to put them down. Yay for a year of great books.

[Darcie Gudger]

Thanks for the overview. As someone trying to break in, keeping up w/ what's hot or not is a great learning tool. It helps direct my lurking excursions at B&N or Borders (I read first lines and or chapters to see the 'grab').

[Julana]

Cec Murphey is a kind, generous man. I got to hear him speak at writers' conference in Atlanta, years ago.

The only one of the million sellers I've read is the Harry Potter. I zipped through the series just in time for publication of the last one--because I wanted to be able to talk about them with my nephew. They were among the few books he voluntarily read.
I did understand the appeal.