February 5, 2013

Dear Publisher,

Publishers Weekly is once again getting ready to compile its annual bestseller list based on publishers’ sales reports in four categories: hardcovers; trade paperbacks; mass market paperbacks; and e-books. The children's department is also compiling 2012 sales figures; click here to submit children's titles. This information will be printed in a Special Report on 2012 Facts & Figures in the March 18 issue. We need to hear from you no later than Tuesday, February 26 (extended).

As in the past, these lists are based on publishers' SALES figures, not in-print figures. Please note that we are interested only in 2012 trade sales―that is, sales to bookstores (including e-retail sales from online booksellers), wholesalers, and libraries exclusively. Do not include sales units based on book clubs, overseas and direct mail transactions. Please be as accurate as possible (do not round off figures), and adjust 2012 shipped and billed sales to reflect returns through February 15, 2013. We will NOT accept any in-print figures for placement on the list–sales figures only.

Please see the instructions for each of the four categories below and email responses to dmaryles@publishersweekly.com. If snail mail, send to Daisy Maryles, 1620 Avenue I, Apt. 317, Brooklyn, NY 11230.

HARDCOVERS

We need your SALES figures on adult titles, published in 2011 and 2012, that have sold more than 100,000 copies in the calendar year 2012. We would also like sales information on any hardcover book published before 2012 that showed up on last year’s weekly lists. Again, please note that we are interested only in 2012 trade sales. To compile this list and to write the accompanying article we also need the following information:

** Exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all books for which you are submitting 2012 sales figures. Please submit separate lists for your fiction and nonfiction adult titles.

** If there is anything interesting or newsworthy about the book’s road to bestsellerdom (record sales figures, a promotion or event that had a major impact on the book’s rise to the top, etc.), please include that information.

PAPERBACKS

For this list, we need two separate categories of submission: mass market and trade paper. No need to separate fiction from nonfiction in your paperback submissions but please submit separate lists for mass market and trade paper.

For mass market, please send exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all titles that sold more than 500,000 copies in 2012.

For trade paper, please send exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all titles that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2012.

E-BOOKS

We would like information on any adult e-book for which your company sold more than 25,000 copies in 2012. E-book sales should be reported separately, and not combined with print sales. Also, please do not list free e-books—only books that have been purchased. For each e-book title you report, please include the author, publisher/imprint, number of copies sold, and the book's original year of print publication, as well as the month and year of e-book publication.

CHILDREN'S/YA BOOKS

If you have any hardcover frontlist children’s books that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2012, any hardcover backlist children’s books that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2012 or any paperback children’s books, either frontlist or backlist, that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2012, please send that information directly to Diane Roback, PW’s children’s book editor, who will be doing a separate compilation in the same issue. She is also collecting information on children's and YA e-books that have sold more than 25,000 in 2012. See those guidelines here.

Please submit your lists to me by mail or as an e-mail attachment (no faxes). If you send an attachment, please make it a Word attachment, and make sure it is easily readable and printable.

We need this information in writing no later than February 26 (extended). If you have any problems meeting this deadline or if you have any questions, please e-mail me.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Daisy Maryles

Publishers Weekly