How much is too much? Last year, 561 books made a first landing on PW's weekly bestseller charts. That's 13.3% more than in 2006 and 33.5% more than in 2003—a huge jump in just five years. That's good news for authors, as many more of them get the opportunity to fulfill their bestseller dream. But there's the flip side—most of them fall off in just a week or two or three.

Even the most successful veterans are experiencing much shorter stays. Nicholas Sparks's debut title, 1996's The Notebook, stayed on the list for more than a year; 2007's Dear John was on for 11 weeks. John Grisham's The Firm had a 48-week run in 1991; The Innocent Man, 13. As noted in the longest-running chart (p. 31), this was the first time that no mass market bestseller had a 15-week run. While a record 212 titles hit the weekly mass market lists, more than half were on for less than one month, with a whopping 54 titles dropping after a single week. Hardcover fiction also lost chart traction. About 55% of the 176 novels that landed last year stayed on for less than a month, and 25 were on for just one week.

In nonfiction and trade paperback, the bestseller picture was a bit rosier. While about half of the nonfiction top sellers were on the 2007 charts for less than a month, 12 stayed on for 15 or more weeks, with an additional 11 books enjoying double-digit tenures. Contrast that with only two novels with staying power of 15 weeks or more and nine others with double-digit runs. In trade paperback, too, about 50% were on the charts for less than a month, but 17 titles were on the charts for 15 or more weeks and four others for 10 or more weeks. In mass market, only four books stayed on for 10 or more weeks.

It takes a lot of publishing dollars and muscle to get books onto the national charts, and that's the key reason conglomerates dominate the lists. In 2007, six houses—Random House, Penguin USA, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Holtzbrinck—controlled 87.5% of all the slots on the weekly hardcover lists and 83.3% of all paperback slots. Add three more publishers on the hardcover side (see chart, p. 29) and the figure is up to 92.3%; in paperback, four more publishers make the number 93%. This domination by just 10 publishing entities does not leave many bestseller opportunities for the hundreds of other publishers.

Getting to #1

Last year, 68 new titles made it to the top of the charts—a record number. Here, too, the slippery slopes of hardcover fiction and mass market provided mixed experiences. While 22 novels made it to the top spot, eight stayed for only one week. Twenty of these books grabbed their top spot in their first week in the stores, which is why publishers put so much effort and cash into the one-day laydown. The only book with double-digit time at the top was A Thousand Splendid Suns—11 weeks in that slot. James Patterson held the top spot for 12 weeks, but that was based on his six bestsellers in the course of the year. In mass market, 15 of the 27 books that made it to #1 dropped off after one week; 24 of these paperbacks reached #1 in their first week out.

The Secret dominated the lead position in nonfiction, holding the #1 slot for 29 weeks, leaving fewer opportunities for other players. There were an additional 11 books that made it to #1, but the one with the second longest tenure was You: Staying Young, with five weeks. In trade paperback, three of the seven books in the top spot had long tenures—Water for Elephants was #1 for 14 weeks; Eat, Pray, Love for 11 weeks; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter for 10 (the latter was also #1 for 22 weeks in 2006).

List Makers

Debut novels had one of their poorest showings in 10 years. Only two—Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Morrow) and Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (Bantam)—made the weekly charts. Dominating the fiction charts were veteran players—James Patterson (six titles), Dean Koontz (three titles), Danielle Steel (three) and Nora Roberts (three). At least 11 others had two hits on the 2007 lists: David Baldacci, Suzanne Brockmann, Clive Cussler, Eric Jerome Dickey, Janet Evanovich, W.E.B. Griffin, Greg Iles, Debbie Macomber, Richard North Patterson, Nicholas Sparks and Stuart Woods.

Two religion publishers, Tyndale and Revell, had the most successful inspirational memoirs—Quiet Strength and 90 Minutes in Heaven; both sold one million copies in their first year in the marketplace. Memoirs were unusually successful last year, including Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, a huge hit on Sarah Crichton's first list for FSG. Autobiographies by celebs, such as Alan Alda, Eric Clapton and Steve Martin, also enjoyed success on the list.

Assessing the Leaders

Random House Inc. continues to be the leader in bestselling real estate, both on the hardcover and paperback sides. The impetus for this is the number of divisions and imprints that compete for the bestseller spots—last year 19 of them landed books on the list. But overall, Random lost the largest percentage of bestseller real estate last year—a total of 7% (4.9% for hardcovers). Knopf had the biggest drop in number of titles and number of weeks on the list—in 2007 it had 10 bestsellers with a total of 52 weeks. Contrast that performance with how it fared in 2006, when 21 hardcover bestsellers accounted for a total of 101 weeks. That drop of 49% was certainly a factor in Random House's loss.

Simon & Schuster showed the strongest hardcover bestseller gain: 6.1%. It had more long-running bestsellers than any other conglomerate, including The Secret, with 50 weeks on the 2007 charts.

Penguin USA fared the best on the paperback side, gaining 5% more bestseller real estate in 2007. Books with staying power made a difference. Three of the four longest-running bestsellers (all Penguin titles)—The Kite Runner, The Memory Keeper's Daughter and Eat, Pray, Love—had a combined total of 147 weeks on the trade paper charts, holding about 18% of the available slots. Algonquin's 2.3% gain can be attributed to one title—Water for Elephants, its first #1 national bestseller.

With about 200,000 titles published annually, less than 1% make the national charts. As we have said many times on these pages, the bestsellers are the books that get the most attention. But more often than not, the other 99% are what makes publishing worthwhile.

RANKING THE HOUSES
How the large companies fared on PW's '07 charts

Company # of Bks # of Wks *Share +/- From '06 # of Bks # of Wks *Share +/- From '06
Hardcover Paperback
Random House Inc. 86 373 23.5% -4.9% 77 373 23.5 -2.1%
Simon & Schuster 54 325 20.4 +6.1 33 165 10.4 -2.3
Penguin USA 51 237 14.9 -0.9 67 385 24.2 +5.0
HarperCollins 41 185 11.6 -3.4 35 159 10.1 +0.1
Hachette Book Group USA 30 188 11.8 +2.7 21 134 8.4 -2.4
Von Holtzbrinck 22 100 6.3 +0.1 22 107 6.7 -1.4
Hyperion 6 37 2.3 -1.0 1 21 1.4 +0.9
Harlequin 2 3 0.2 -0.1 30 82 5.2 +2.3
Houghton Mifflin 4 36 2.3 +1.4 1 5 0.3 +0.3
Workman/Algonquin - - - -0.5 3 45 2.8 +2.3
*This figure represents the publisher's share of the 1,590 hardcover or 1,590 paperback bestseller positions during 2007.


RANKING THE HOUSES
How the Divisions and Imprints Competed in 2007

Publisher # of Books # of Weeks
Adult Hardcover
Putnam 28 110
Simon & Schuster 17 99
HarperCollins 17 72
Morrow 15 47
Grand Central 13 67
Little, Brown 12 95
Random House 12 45
Ballantine 12 38
Doubleday 11 64
Scribner 11 38
Free Press 10 69
Knopf 10 52
St. Martin's 10 42
Delacorte 8 38
Dutton 8 33
Bantam 8 27
Hyperion 6 37
Collins 5 58
Atria 5 35
Rodale 5 13
Del Rey 5 11
Riverhead 4 40
Houghton Mifflin 4 36
Viking 4 16
St. Martin's/Dunne 4 12
Nelson 4 10
Crown 3 26
Broadway 3 16
Harmony 3 12
Pocket Books 3 11
Hay House 3 9
Holt 3 6
Simon Spotlight Entertainment 3 6
FSG 2 30
Tyndale 2 23
Penguin Press 2 21
Twelve 2 19
Tor 2 8
Berkley 2 7
Clarkson Potter 2 7
Guinness 2 6
Crown Forum 2 5
Mira 2 3
Atria/Beyond Words 1 50
Alliance Publishing 1 18
Spiegel & Grau 1 9
Crown/Areheart 1 8
Touchstone 1 7
Dial 1 6
Threshold 1 5
Beaufort 1 4
Eos 1 4
Gotham 1 4
Pocket/WWE 1 4
Regnery 1 4
Roc 1 4
TSR/Wizards of the Coast 1 4
Crown Business 1 3
Dark Horse 1 3
Doubleday/Talese 1 3
Harcourt 1 3
Kensington 1 3
Ace 1 2
FaithWords 1 2
HarperEntertainment 1 2
HarperOne 1 2
Pantheon 1 2
Norton 1 2
St. Martin's/Minotaur 1 2
Warner Business 1 2
Warner Wellness 1 2
Abrams Image 1 1
Bantam Spectra 1 1
Center Street 1 1
Greenleaf Book 1 1
Meredith 1 1
Shadow Mountain 1 1
Fireside 1 1
Mass Market
Signet 22 79
Pocket Books 18 63
Jove 18 58
Avon 18 52
Berkley 16 61
Bantam 14 62
Harlequin 14 43
Ballantine 12 41
St. Martin's 12 39
Dell 12 36
Harper 10 36
Pocket Star 10 24
Grand Central 9 59
Kensington 7 27
HQN Books 7 20
Vision 6 33
Silhouette 6 15
Del Rey 4 11
Tor 2 10
Anchor 2 3
Alliance Publishing 1 7
Tor Fantasy 1 4
Vintage 1 4
Ace 1 2
Dell/Laurel 1 2
Onyx 1 2
Eos 1 1
Hyperion 1 1
Trade
Vintage 10 102
Penguin 4 114
Clarkson Potter 4 13
Picador 3 38
Random House 3 29
Anchor 3 24
Washington Square Press 3 24
Grand Central 3 18
Bantam 3 8
Silhouette 3 4
HarperOne 2 55
Little, Brown/Back Bay 2 21
Three Rivers Press 2 14
Broadway 2 12
Life 2 10
Workman 2 9
World Almanac Books 2 8
Hyperion 2 7
Tor 2 7
Harper 2 6
Ballantine 2 5
Riverhead 1 51
Scribner 1 48
Revell 1 38
Algonquin 1 36
Running Press 1 21
Grove 1 10
Amistad 1 8
Berkley 1 7
NAL 1 6
Delta 1 5
Family Health Publications 1 5
Houghton Mariner 1 5
Orb 1 5
FaithWords 1 3
Free Press 1 3
Perigee 1 3
St. Martin's/Griffin 1 3
Touchstone 1 3
Dial 1 2
Plume 1 2
Perennial 1 1
St. Martin's 1 1
Tyndale 1 1


PW'S 2007 LONGEST-RUNNING BESTSELLERS

Hardcover
*These titles achieved the #1 spot during their 2007 tenure on PW's weekly bestseller lists.
Numbers in parentheses show how many weeks the book was on PW's list prior to 2007.
# of weeks on 2007 List Fiction
31 *A Thousand Splendid Suns.Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead
25 *For One More Day.Mitch Albom. Hyperion (11)
# of weeks on 2007 List Nonfiction
50 *The Secret.Rhonda Byrne. Atria/Beyond Words (1)
31 *The Dangerous Book for Boys.Conn & Hal Iggulden. Collins
29 A Long Way Gone.Ishmael Beah. FSG/Sarah Crichton Books
27 *You: On a Diet.Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D. Free Press (6)
20 I Feel Bad About My Neck.Nora Ephron. Knopf (19)
18 *The Best Life Diet.Bob Greene. Simon & Schuster
18 God Is Not Great.Christopher Hitchens. Twelve
18 Lone Survivor.Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson. Little, Brown
18 The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don't Want You to Know About.Kevin Trudeau. Alliance Publishing
16 *The Audacity of Hope.Barack Obama. Crown (8)
15 Einstein.Walter Isaacson. Simon & Schuster.
15 Quiet Strength.Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker. Tyndale


PW'S 2007 LONGEST-RUNNING BESTSELLERS

Paperback
*These titles achieved the #1 spot during their 2007 tenure on PW's weekly bestseller lists.
Numbers in parentheses show how many weeks the book was on PW's list prior to 2007.
# of weeks on 2007 List Mass Market
(For the first time ever, no mass market title stayed on the list for 15 or more weeks.)
# of weeks on 2007 List Trade
51 *The Kite Runner.Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead (116)
49 *The Memory Keeper's Daughter.Kim Edwards. Penguin (25)
48 The Glass Castle.Jeannette Walls. Scribner (24)
47 *Eat, Pray, Love.Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin
38 The Alchemist.Paulo Coelho. HarperOne (22)
38 90 Minutes in Heaven.Don Piper with Cecil Murphey. Revell
37 *Water for Elephants.Sara Gruen. Algonquin
25 Suite Française.Irène Némirovsky. Vintage
24 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (16).Lisa See. Random House
24 *The Road.Cormac McCarthy. Vintage
21 Skinny Bitch.Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. Running Press
20 Middlesex.Jeffrey Eugenides. Picador
19 Blink.Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown/Back Bay
17 *The Measure of a Man.Sidney Poitier. HarperOne
17 Three Cups of Tea.Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin. Penguin
17 Into the Wild.Jon Krakauer. Anchor
16 The Emperor's Children.Claire Messud. Vintage


BESTSELLER LANDINGS

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Hardcover Fiction 137 136 140 168 176*
Hardcover Nonfiction 86 96 102 110 116*
Mass Market 145 134 150 165 212*
Trade Paperback 52 55 54 52 57
*Record high; the high for trade paperbacks (60 new titles) was set in 1993
All the numbers reflect first-time landings on the bestseller lists during a given year. With a record 212 mass market titles making a first landing in 2007, traction is not a characteristic of this genre. Only four titles had double-digit runs on the list. In contrast,14 of the 57 new trade paperback titles had double-digit runs. Fiction hardcovers had shorter tenures on the weekly charts than nonfiction; of the 176 new novels, nine had double-digit runs. In hardcover nonfiction, 15 of the 116 first-time bestsellers were on the list for 10 or more weeks.