Bestseller Stat Shot

Heaven, meet hell: the two bestselling books of 2013 to date are about as far apart as you can get. Dan Brown’s Dante-inspired hellish thriller, Inferno (Doubleday), is on top, with 699,495 print copies sold to date. Just behind it, with 559,303 print sales, is Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven (Simon & Schuster), in which Alexander, a neurosurgeon, recounts his own brush with death and his experience with the afterlife.

From the Newsletters

Tip Sheet
Need a good cry? Susannah Charleson, author of The Possibility Dogs (HMH), writes about how a paralyzed, one-eyed rescue dog and a depressed, retired nurse saved each other.

Children’s Bookshelf
Check out our extended list of the big children’s and YA books featured at this year’s BEA, at , as well as an extensive photo essay covering the authors and events at the show.

PW Select Report
Read the first edition of our new self-publishing-focused newsletter to pick up some tips on marketing your self-published book.

And check out Bookworks.com, a new association for self-published authors. PW is partnering with Bookworks.com via global rights organization Pubmatch.

Sign up for newsletters here.

The most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko (PublicAffairs).

PW Radio

Sirius XM Channel 80, Thursdays at 3 p.m.
Dallas Morning News columnist Rob Dreher joins hosts Rose Fox and Mark Rotella to talk about The Little Way of Ruthie Leming (Grand Central), his memoir of family, death, and redemption. Also, PW reviews editor Alex Crowley surveys the latest in small and independent press news.

Did you miss the original broadcast? Catch the re-air, Saturdays at 11 a.m.

Blogs

ShelfTalker
What makes a great book title? Well, that depends. One children’s bookseller weighs in.

PWxyz
A very (not at all) scientific study of Saul Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie March concludes that the story is 4% lifeboat and 1% Trotsky. But what of the remaining 95%?

Podcasts

KidsCast
In the latest episode of PW KidsCast, Eoin Colfer, author of the internationally beloved Artemis Fowl books, discusses his time-bending new series, W.A.R.P.

Subscribe to our podcasts in iTunes, or listen here.

Authors

Paul Cleave, author of Cemetery Lake (Atria) and The Cleaner, talks plot, home renovation, and the trouble he’s had in trying to get the shops in his native New Zealand to carry his books.

Why are science and art so at odds? And what’s up with “fake bohemian geek culture?” We talk to Curtis White, author of The Science Delusion (Melville House), to find out.