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Publishers Weekly Bestsellers for 2006

Last week's issue of Publishers Weekly (which I just got to yesterday) has their annual look at the bestselling books of 2006. Because this stuff fascinates me, I wanted to run through those lists and pull out the books of genre interest -- just to see how we're doing compared with the wider world of books.

The various PW articles are online, for those who want to dive into more context -- "Players Need Platforms" ranks hardcovers, "Media Heavies" covers paperbacks, and "Lemony Endings, Sweet" looks at books for younger readers in various formats.

All numbers are from PW -- they say that these are shipped-and-billed figures, not necessarily after returns (particularly for books published at the end of 2006), not including bookclub or overseas sales, and only include books sold in the calendar year 2006. So these are not anyone's "official" numbers, but they are at least indicative.

To start with the hardcovers, the bestselling books of 2006 were Mitch Albom's For One More Day in fiction (2,735,232 copies) and John Grisham's The Innocent Man in non-fiction (approximately 2,192,000). Nothing on the non-fiction list is of particular interest to the SFF world, but there are 5 books on the top 15 fiction list with some connection to us:

  • 4. Next by Michael Crichton (1,232,429)
  • 5. Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (app. 1,200,000)
  • 6. Lisey's Story by Stephen King (app. 1,200,000)
  • 8. Cell by Stephen King (app. 1,000,000)
  • 15. Brother Odd by Dean Koontz (app. 650,000)

PW then lists everything that sold over 100,000 copies, and the interesting books there are:

There may have been a few paranormal romances that I didn't recognize as such, or thrillers with supernatural elements, but otherwise that list should include everything with SF or fantasy content. (This disclaimer applies to all of my lists, actually -- I may have missed SFFnal things I'm not familiar with, but they would most likely be romances or thrillers.)

The next list is trade paperbacks, and the top book there (unsurprisingly) is Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code at 7,500,000 copies in mass and trade paper combined. Of interest to the SFF world:

  • Cameras in Narnia by Ian Brodie (app 800,000)
  • Wicked by Gregory Maguire (493,369)
  • The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (378,523)
  • Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire (298,276)
  • Halo by Eric Nylund (240,467)
  • Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk (238,000)
  • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (216,000)
  • Wicked by Gregory Maguire (another edition, 193,753)
  • Perfume by Patrick Suskind (130,000)
  • A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon (125,000)
  • Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (125,000)
  • Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (122,000)
  • The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud (110,000)

In mass market, the top book was Nora Robert's Morrigan's Cross at 2,720,684 copies, which is itself of interest, since it's a paranormal romance. Other books with SF/Fantasy elements were:

That list only goes down to the half-million level, or there would probably be another two dozen paranormal romances and even a few books published as SFF.

And then we come into the world of books for people who aren't quite adults yet. PW slices that into quadrants, dividing frontlist from backlist and hardcover from paperback, and I'll follow their lead (just to save myself integrating everything). Here I'm leaving out talking-things-that-don't-usually-talk books (like Charlotte's Web and the various Cars tie-ins), as well as books for really young readers, just to keep the list manageable.

First is hardcover frontlist, where the top title was Lemony Snicket's The End, at 2,089,054 copies -- more than four times the #2 book, incidentally. Also here:

  • Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer (app. 500,000)
  • Maximum Ride #2: School's Out -- Forever by James Patterson (420,501)
  • The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket (360,407)
  • Eldest (Limited Edition) by Christopher Paolini (275,558)
  • Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (225,000)
  • Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean (159,704)
  • Charlie Bone and the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo (158,719)
  • Fairest by Gail Caron Levine (155,006)
  • Flyte by Angie Sage (149,732)
  • Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud (app. 125,000)
  • The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (101,896)
  • Specials by Scott Westerfeld (101,391)
  • The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (app. 100,000)

The top book in "hardcover backlist" is the board-book edition of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, at 806,556. Of SFFnal interest:

Yes, every single volume of Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events" sold piles of copies last year. Who says kids don't like depressing books?

Next is "paperback frontlist," which are newly-published paperbacks (though these are still almost all reprints of hardcovers). The top book is, unsurprisingly, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling, at 1,328,173 copies. (Which, I note, is less than the new Snicket book.) Otherwise:

  • Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson (1,063,944)
  • Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (app. 200,000)
  • Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer (app. 200,000)
  • Magyk by Angie Sage (167,555)
  • The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (150,000)
  • and a whole lot of Pirates of the Caribbean, Over the Hedge, and Ice Age tie-ins.

Lastly, there's "paperback backlist," led by Christopher Paolini's Eragon at 1,675,678. Also:

From that list, I can clearly see that the renumbering of the Narnia books has had an effect -- you'd expect the second-best-selling book in that series to be Prince Caspian, which is the further adventures of the heroes of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but Caspian's sales are below both The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy. Only time will tell if this has any effect on young readers' enjoyment of the books, though...

I'm too tired after all of that typing to make any sweeping generalizations; I'll leave that to you folks for now. What do you think it all means?

Posted by Andrew Wheeler on April 3, 2007 10:49 AM |

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