[Please note that this letter went out to publishers on Feb. 7. We are extending the deadline from Feb. 17 to Feb. 22, and please especially note that we have altered the requirement with respect to adult e-books—we only want reports of e-books sales for titles priced at $5 or higher, and, due to volume, we are requesting only reports on e-books that sold 25,000 copies or more. Reports of children’s e-books remains 10,000 and above.]

Dear Publisher,

Publishers Weekly is once again getting ready to compile its annual bestseller list based on publishers’ sales reports in four categories: hardcovers; paperbacks (including mass market and trade paper), and e-books. The children's department is also compiling list. This information will be printed in a Special Report on 2011 Facts & Figures in the March 19 issue. We need to hear from you no later than Friday, February 22.

As in the past, these lists are based on publishers' SALES figures, not in-print figures. Please note that we are interested only in 2011 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 2011 shipped and billed sales to reflect returns through February 10, 2012. We will not accept any in-print figures for placement on the list.

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 2010 and 2011, that have sold more than 100,000 copies in the calendar year 2011. We would also like sales information on any hardcover book published before 2010 that showed up on last year’s weekly lists. Again, please note that we are interested only in 2011 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 2011 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 three separate categories of submission: mass market; trade paper; and almanacs, annuals and atlases. No need to separate fiction from nonfiction in your paperback submissions.

For mass market, please send exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all titles that sold more than 500,000 copies in 2011.
For trade paper, please send exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all titles that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2011.
For almanacs, atlases, and annuals, please send exact title, subtitle, author, price and publication date for all titles that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2010.

E-BOOKS

We would like information on any adult e-book for which your company sold more than 25,000 copies in 2011. E-book sales should be reported separately, and not combined with print sales. Also, please do not list e-books priced below $5.00. 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 BOOKS
If you have any hardcover frontlist children’s books that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2011, any hardcover backlist children’s books that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2011 or any paperback children’s books, either frontlist or backlist, that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2011, 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 e-books that have sold more than 10,000 copies in 2011.

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 17. If you have any problems meeting this deadline or if you have any questions, please e-mail me at dmaryles@publishersweekly.com.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Daisy Maryles
Publishers Weekly