“The presence of politics on the bestseller charts is unparalleled.”
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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Strong early sales indicators for Fear, Bob Woodward’s exhaustively reported new book about the Trump White House, last week led Simon & Schuster to announce 750,000 copies were sold on publication day (September 11, 2018). That remarkable number turned out to be wrong, and S&S have since adjusted it… upward.
“In fact, S&S announced, FEAR sold more than 900,000 copies on day one of publication, and the book has now sold more than 1.1 million copies with demand still strong,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
Woodward’s blockbuster isn’t alone on the bestseller lists, though he may be the Mount Everest on the Trump Books range. For the first half of 2018, political books are leading the publishing industry to growth, according to a report from NPD Bookscan, which tracks about 80% of final print sales through U.S. bookstores
“They report that sales of print books through the first half of 2018 were trending upward, led by growth in adult nonfiction titles—specifically religious books, cookbooks, and political books. Sales volume in the first half of 2018 rose 2%, which is pretty robust for the book business,” Albanese explained.
“Overall, the rise in nonfiction books is really setting the pace—and I’ll note that Woodward’s sales are not in this batch,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “Analyst Kristen Mclean said, ‘the presence of politics on the charts is unparalleled.’ Indeed, sales of political books posted their highest sales volume in the past fifteen years.”
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.
