Recapping 2005's Winners and Losers
by Daisy Maryles, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 12/22/2005
What a difference a year makes. As the 2005 holiday season winds down the three national chains—Barnes & Noble, Borders and Waldenbooks—report that the top five hardcover adult bestsellers sold a total of approximately 124,600 copies for the week ending December 18. In 2004, same period same store sales for the top five hardcover adult bestsellers sold close to 226,500 units; a drop of 45%.
It was much better tidings for adult paperbacks: in 2005, sales for the top five paperbacks totaled approximately 146,225, compared to about 102,000 in 2004, indicating an increase of 43%.
In the third week of December 2005, James Patterson's Mary, Mary was the bestselling fiction title, selling about 42,500 at the big three. Last year, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven was the fiction leader, with 104,600 for the same time period. The 2005 nonfiction hardcover leader, Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, sold a little over 37,000 copies at the three chains in the week of December 17. The 2004 leader, Jon Stewart's America the Book, sold close to 108,500 copies in the same week.
Outselling all adult books for the final week before Christmas is the trade paperback edition of James Frey's Oprah-approved A Million Little Pieces, with about 66,750 units sold.
What other chart toppers will 2005 be remembered for? Sudoku was the dominant subject on the trade paperback lists while a dog named Marley was a surprise hit with readers. Morrow launched Marley & Me with a 50,000 first printing and, after less than two week, kicked that figure up to 400,000. Another runaway hit, which got plenty of ink in the press, was The Historian, which landed at No. 1 after a week on shelves at the big three; it went on to hit the elusive over-one-million-in-print mark. The nonfiction list also held strong with well-reviewed and strong-selling titles by prize-winning authors like Doris Kearns Goodwin, Thomas Friedman, Joan Didion and David McCullough.
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