With the tide of e-book sales rising fast, the number of million-selling digital titles has likewise swelled. That’s good news for authors and their publishers, and lest we forget, heartening too for all makers of devices. Yet bookstore owners can take heart as well: Hardcover sales for 2012 saw a respectable number of titles break the million-unit sales barrier.
“For 2012, we see about 170 titles selling more than 100,000 e-books,” Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer, tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “Leading the way is E.L. James who sold more than 14 million copies for the Fifty Shades Trilogy. The only other author found in the million-selling e-book club? Gillian Flynn, with Gone Girl.”
While overall hardcover book sales fell in 2012, Albanese adds, there were some very big hits, thanks to some very big names. Leading the parade on the fiction side were The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling, and The Racketeer from John Grisham, both topping one million units. In nonfiction, Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard headed the chart, followed by No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden from Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer.
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Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.