Jun 14 2007
USA Today Bestseller List, Week Ending June 10, 2007
Despite last week being a major release week for romances, there were not many new entries. Two big names: MaryJanice Davidson and Jo Beverly showed up in the middle of the list and Yasmine Galenorn, a paranormal writer, showed up toward the end. Galenorn is said to be writing romances, but I wasn’t quite sure if hers were hybrids, connected books or series, so I haven’t jumped on that train just yet.
***
Angels Fall, Nora Roberts, (Jove), $7.99, No. 4 (Peak 1 – as a hardcover release). Paperback release. This was the number one book on Bookscan with a total week sales of 44,300. Yeah. Nora Roberts sells more in one week than most author’s print runs.
The Harlequin (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 15) by Laurell K Hamilton (Berkley) $25.95, No. 5 (deubt). Word is that this is a return to form but I’m not getting back on the train. Am not.
Sleeping with Fear, Kay Hooper (Bantam), $7.50, No. 18 (Peak 9).
The Man From Stone Creek, Linda Lael Miller (HQN), $7.99, No. 21 (Peak 8).
The MacGregors: Robert & Cybil: The Winning Hand and The Perfect Neighbor, Nora Roberts (Silhouette Special Releases), $7.99, No. 23 (Peak 13).
Vanished, Karen Robards (Signet) $7.99, No. 27 (debut). This is the paperback release of the hardcover.
Master of Dragons (Mageverse, Book 8), Angela Knight (Berkley), $7.99, No. 34 (Peak 34). Last week this was 131 and thus the biggest mover. (Sometimes I feel like Casey Casum).
Desperate Duchesses, Eloisa James (Avon), No. 39 (Peak 27). James was on the NYTimes extended list. Her bookscan numbers were great. I think if she could make the central characters have a stronger presence, she might sell even more because her writing is brilliant.
Abandon, Carla Neggers (Mira), $7.99, No. 40 (Peak 24).
Summer Pleasures: Second Nature\One Summer, Nora Roberts (Silhouette Special Releases), $14.95, No. 44 (Peak 31).
Last Look: A Novel of Suspense, Mariah Stewart (Ballantine Books), $6.99, No. 48 (Peak 28).
Sins of a Duke, Suzanne Enoch (Avon), $6.99, No. 56 (Peak 40).
Undead and Uneasy (Queen Betsy, Book 6), MaryJanice Davidson (Berkley), $23.95, No. 61 (debut).
Beware a Scot’s Revenge, Sabrina Jeffries (Pocket) $6.99, No. 62 (Peak 26). Jeffries was no 15 on the NYT list despite having lower bookscan numbers and placing lower on the USA Today list than Stewart and James. In fact, the sales numbers for the week that the NYT list represents were 7,007 copies.
Lady Beware: A Novel of the Company of Rogues, Jo Beverley (Signet), $7.99, No. 66 (debut).
Changeling, Yasmine Galenorn (Berkley), $6.99, No 73 (debut). I think this is Galenorn’s second book. I haven’t bought it because I thought that the first book was about three sisters. Now I am wondering if the books are a trilogy.
Susannah’s Garden, Debbie Macomber (Mira), $7.99, No. 81 (Peak No. 4 ).
Immortals: The Darkening (Book 2), Robin T. Popp (Dorchester), $6.99, No. 105 (Peak 89).
Gideon: The Nightwalkers, Jacquelyn Frank (Zebra) $6.99, No. 108 (Peak 55).
Lawman (STP – Mira), Diana Palmer (HQN), $24.95 No. 112 (Peak 49).
The Viscount in Her Bedroom (Sisters of Willow Pond Trilogy), Gayle Callen (Avon), $6.99, No. 115 (Peak 88).
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Out of the list:
Into the Dark (The Bodyguards), Cindy Gerard (St. Martin’s Paperbacks), $6.99, No. 61 (debut).
The Midnight Breed, Book 2: Kiss of Crimson, Lara Adrian (Dell), $6.99 (debut).
The Touch of Fire, Linda Howard (Pocket), $7.99, No. 79 (Peak 79).
The Starter Wife, Gigi Levangie Grazer, $7.99, No. 83 (Peak 75).
Stray, Rachel Vincent (Mira), $6.99, No. 107 (debut).
Cover of Night, Linda Howard (Ballantine), $7.99, No. 109 (Peak No. 6).
Raintree: Haunted (Silhouette Nocturne), Linda Winstead Jones (Silhouette Nocturne), No. 111 (debut). Second in the Raintree series started by Linda Howard.
Born in Death, J.D. Robb (Berkley), $7.99, No. 126 (Peak No. 5).
Hot Stuff, Janet Evanovich, Leanne Banks (St. Martin’s Paperbacks), $7.99, No. 130 (Peak 4).
The Witness, Sandra Brown (Warner), $6.99, No. 136 (Peak 13).
The Marriage Spell: A Novel, Mary Jo Putney, $6.99, No. 140 (debut). paperback release of a hardcover.
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Jun 14, 2007 @ 12:54:08
I only read the first Galenorn book and it’s not a romance–IMHO, the romance isn’t even the central plot of the book. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either, and even though it’s first person, it’s feels very distant. I think I called the protag a tourist in my review.
It started out as a trilogy, but I remember hearing that she’s sold a fourth book in the series recently.
Jun 14, 2007 @ 14:10:30
Master of Dragons is on both the list and the out-of-list list.
Jane, can you think of, off the top of your head, of a romance writer who doesn’t get really high on the list b/c of lack of selling velocity, but who sells very well overall thanks to consistency?
Jun 14, 2007 @ 14:23:21
I think that depends on “sells well”. As in still have career in writing? Overall , wouldn’t that be most romance writers? Let’s assume that you want to gross 25K per year writing romance novels. If each novel earns you 8% of a retail mass market (6.99 average) then each book earns about $.56 which means you have to sell a little more than 44,500 units.
I have a bookscan report I found from October of last year and Lori Foster is the “smallest” name on the list to have YTD sales of 40+. Of course, assuming that Bookscan only captures about half the market for a mass market book that is in drugstores, grocery stores and mass markets, the list is slightly more expansive. (remember than each week’s book scan has YTD sales but is not representative of the entire years’ placements. .e., a book could have sold 20,000 units in the first few months it was out and just not be turning out sales large enough to get on bookscan later in the year.
Rachel Gibson, Jo Beverly, Susan Squires all sold in the 20+ range by October. (Gibson usually comes out in August so her numbers probably climbed).
In looking at the October bookscan list, most of the 15+ sellers were big names: Jillian Hunter, Brenda Joyce, Linda Howard, Maggie Shayne, Angela Knight.
This tells me that Romance Writers have to have at least two books a year to make even a moderate income if you are a midlist writer. If you are a superleader, then you can probably make it with just one book a year.
But again, I could be totally wrong because I don’t know what everyone’s royalties are at the end of the day.
Jun 14, 2007 @ 22:37:56
Wow. Thanks, Jane. I was expecting three lines and I got an education instead. :-)
Tremendously post. I’m going to print that BookScan application out as soon as school is over. ;-)
BTW, ARCs for Private Arrangements would be available at RWA. I’ll be signing 100 of those at the Random House giveaway Saturday afternoon.
Jun 15, 2007 @ 10:23:06
Actually, Jane, Bookscan isn’t the most reliable source for sales figures. We wish it was, but it does not include Wal-mart or Sam’s at all, and when I’ve had the chance to see my sales figures broken down by store, Wal-mart constituted nearly half of all my sales, which is a hefty chunk. Judging from my royalty figures, my Bookscan numbers represent no more than 25% of my actual sales. I’ve actually had an author tell me that it only represented *5%* of her sales, which is really small.
Also, since bestseller lists are all compiled differently and draw from different sources (as you noted in your article before), they never match up exactly. And sometimes the NYT has a bit of delayed reaction. My last book was #36 on the USA Today list the same week that it was #32 on the NYT. Then it rose to #18 on the NYT the following week when it only moved up to #33 on the USA Today. So there’s not always a direct correlation, due to the different ways these lists are compiled. My sales were so high the week of release that the numbers may have affected the following week, too. It’s just not an exact science.
Jun 15, 2007 @ 12:01:08
There you go, Sherry, Jeffries would know more than I.
Jun 15, 2007 @ 19:07:38
Sherry,
Do you need me to remind you Sybil is my real name? You can go ahead and start thinking about how you want to sign my book *g*.
::makes note of Saturday afternoon::
Jun 16, 2007 @ 06:31:37
Sybil,
Oh, there’s an “i” in your name, I can dot it with a heart. Should I do “Hugs and Kittens” or SWAK, or LOLOLOL?
I’m going to buy one of the Costco gel pen collections and you can choose your favorite iridescent color of the rainbow! *g*
Jun 16, 2007 @ 11:32:53
I bought one of those the other day, and it is TOTALLY ADDICTIVE. And only 15 bucks!