Monday, March 22, 2010

"Going Rogue" sold over 2.6 million copies in 2009

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Though it didn't hit the book shelves until the middle of November, Sarah Palin's Going Rogue memoir was the top-selling hard cover non-fiction book of 2009, according to Publishers Weekly:
In nonfiction, can it be that Dick Morris almost outsold Chesley Sullenberger? (Yes.) And did Sarah Palin really outsell Ted Kennedy 3-1? You betcha.

[...]

Harper's Going Rogue and Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, by Steve Harvey, copped the top two spots in nonfiction, followed by a couple of titles from S&S's Threshold imprint—Glenn Beck's and Mark R. Levin's.

What is also true and not to be overlooked is that all the hardcover books in these lists were successes. To sell a hundred thousand copies (the cutoff for this list) is to generate near a million dollars for a publisher—no small feat, especially in these times.
By PW's count, Gov. Palin's book sold 2,674,684 copies in just the last six weeks of 2009:
Hardcover Nonfiction Sales, 2009

1. Going Rogue: An American Life. Sarah Palin. Harper (2,674,684).
2. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment. Steve Harvey. Harper (1,735,219).
3. *Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government. Glenn Beck. Threshold.
4. *Liberty & Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. Mark R. Levin..
5. True Compass: A Memoir. Edward M. Kennedy. Twelve (870,402).
- JP

1 comment:

  1. WOW, those are amazing numbers. Generally, a book will achieve 80% to 90% of its total sales in the first 6 weeks. Assuming sales of Going Rogue in 2010 will be approximately 15% more, total sales will exceed 3.1 million.

    This far exceeds Bill Clinton's "My Life" (2004) with current total sales of 2.25 million and Hillary Clinton's "Making History" (2002) with current total sales of 1.2 million.

    Rush Limbaugh's first book, "See I Told You So" (1993) sold 2.5 million. However, given population growth since 1993, that would be equivalent to selling 3.3 million copies today.

    Can't wait for her second book!

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