Following a drop of 5.5% in print book sales last week, which is mostly due to no big titles coming out, this week followed with a drop of 1.2% compared to the week of September 26.
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Despite seven new titles appearing among the top 10 bestsellers last week, it was not enough to bring book sales up. After a few dire months in the Publishing industry at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, sales seemed to be recovering in the last few months due to a few reasons: the prevalence of online purchasing in the US, Ingram’s (book distribution company) print-on-demand operations, and the high demand of titles on politics and race such as White Fragility, How to Be an Antiracist, and The Room Where it Happened.
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But since the popularity of these same books is beginning to fade out, the lack of in-person events and book fairs, and because the industry continues to face printing shortages, sales have slipped once again. Hopefully, as we approach the Holiday season, we’ll see an increase in book sales.
It is not an easy thing—becoming a successful author. Rarely does it happen over night and for many, it doesn’t happen at all. It takes a lot to become a truly successful word weavers, but it can happen. The following authors are examples of that. Selling over 30 MILLION copies each, here are five of writers you need to read.
1. Scott Turow
(Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images) Via Urban Milwaukee
Lawyer-turned-author Scott Turow has written eleven novels in addition to three nonfiction books, which in total have been translated into over forty languages and sold more than 30 million copies. He is best known for his legal thrillers Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, Pleading Guilty, and Personal Injuries, which was named by Time magazine as the Best Fiction Novel of 1999. Turow has won multiple literary awards, most notably the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers’ Association.
Image Via Slant Magazine
In addition to this, Turow has no less than six Hollywood movie adaptations under his belt, including Presumed Innocent, starring Harrison Ford, and Reversible Evidence, starring William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman. Turow was elected the president of the Authors Guild in 2010, and was previously president from 1997 to 1998. He still practices law; most of the cases he works are pro-bono, including the 1995 case of Alejandro Hernandez, a man who spent eleven years on death row for a murder he did not commit.
2. Charlaine Harris
(Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images) Via Entertainment Weekly
New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries series has sold more than 30 million copies as well as becoming a hit TV show, True Blood. Harris has penned at least twenty-five novels including the Aurora Teagarden Series, the Lily Bard series and the Harper Connelly series.
Image Via HBO
After much ghost-story writing and teen angst poetry, Harris began her novel writing career with Real Murders, the first in the Aurora Teagarden series which was nominated for Best Novel 1990 at the Agatha Awards. 1996 saw the release of the first in the Lily Bard series, set in small town Arkansas where Harris lived at the time. In 2001, Harris released the first Sookie Stackhouse mystery, Dead Until Dark, which won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery. The series would become the Southern Vampire Mysteries, later adapted by HBO into hit TV show True Blood.
3. Neil Gaiman
Image Via Hollywood Reporter
Author of such beloved modern classics as Stardust, Coraline, and American Gods, among many others, Neil Gaiman is something of an institution at this stage. Straddling the dual worlds of novel writing and graphic novel writing, Gaiman’s Sandman series of graphic novels alone have sold over 30 million copies, while his novels have shifted an additional 10 million copies.
Image Via YouTube
Among Gaiman’s countless accolades the the Newbery and Carnegie medalsHugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards. In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.
4. Rick Riordan
Image Via Englert Theatre
Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series, which has inspired two film adaptations, has sold a cool 55 million copies and been translated into forty-two languages. He first got the idea for the Percy Jackson series, which follows a young boy who discovers he is the son of ancient Greek god Poseidon, when inventing bedtime stories for his sons, one of whom has ADHD and dyslexia, thus influencing Riordan’s decision to have the character Percy deal with these conditions, also.
Image Via The Fandomentals
Riordan co-created the children’s series The 39 Clues, and has penned many additional books including the Tres Navarre series for adults, The Heroes of Olympus series, and The Maze of Bones, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list.
5. Veronica Roth
Image Via YouTube
Divergent author Veronica Roth is the youngest author on this list, having penned hit YA dystopian tale Divergent at just nineteen, and since selling over 40 million copies of Divergent and its sequels. She had a publishing deal before graduating Northwestern University, and each of the books, Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant were made into Hollywood films films.
Image Via Summit Entertainment
In January 2017, Roth released a new YA novel, Carve the Mark, the sequel to which, The Fates Divide came out in April 2018.
It is not an easy thing—becoming a successful author. Rarely does it happen over night and for many, it doesn’t happen at all. It takes a lot to become a truly successful word weavers, but it can happen. The following authors are examples of that. Selling over 30 MILLION copies each, here are five of writers you need to read.
1. Scott Turow
(Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images) Via Urban Milwaukee
Lawyer-turned-author Scott Turow has written eleven novels in addition to three nonfiction books, which in total have been translated into over forty languages and sold more than 30 million copies. He is best known for his legal thrillers Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, Pleading Guilty, and Personal Injuries, which was named by Time magazine as the Best Fiction Novel of 1999. Turow has won multiple literary awards, most notably the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers’ Association.
Image Via Slant Magazine
In addition to this, Turow has no less than six Hollywood movie adaptations under his belt, including Presumed Innocent, starring Harrison Ford, and Reversible Evidence, starring William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman. Turow was elected the president of the Authors Guild in 2010, and was previously president from 1997 to 1998. He still practices law; most of the cases he works are pro-bono, including the 1995 case of Alejandro Hernandez, a man who spent eleven years on death row for a murder he did not commit.
2. Charlaine Harris
(Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images) Via Entertainment Weekly
New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries series has sold more than 30 million copies as well as becoming a hit TV show, True Blood. Harris has penned at least twenty-five novels including the Aurora Teagarden Series, the Lily Bard series and the Harper Connelly series.
Image Via HBO
After much ghost-story writing and teen angst poetry, Harris began her novel writing career with Real Murders, the first in the Aurora Teagarden series which was nominated for Best Novel 1990 at the Agatha Awards. 1996 saw the release of the first in the Lily Bard series, set in small town Arkansas where Harris lived at the time. In 2001, Harris released the first Sookie Stackhouse mystery, Dead Until Dark, which won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery. The series would become the Southern Vampire Mysteries, later adapted by HBO into hit TV show True Blood.
3. Neil Gaiman
Image Via Hollywood Reporter
Author of such beloved modern classics as Stardust, Coraline, and American Gods, among many others, Neil Gaiman is something of an institution at this stage. Straddling the dual worlds of novel writing and graphic novel writing, Gaiman’s Sandman series of graphic novels alone have sold over 30 million copies, while his novels have shifted an additional 10 million copies.
Image Via YouTube
Among Gaiman’s countless accolades the the Newbery and Carnegie medalsHugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards. In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.
4. Rick Riordan
Image Via Englert Theatre
Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series, which has inspired two film adaptations, has sold a cool 55 million copies and been translated into forty-two languages. He first got the idea for the Percy Jackson series, which follows a young boy who discovers he is the son of ancient Greek god Poseidon, when inventing bedtime stories for his sons, one of whom has ADHD and dyslexia, thus influencing Riordan’s decision to have the character Percy deal with these conditions, also.
Image Via The Fandomentals
Riordan co-created the children’s series The 39 Clues, and has penned many additional books including the Tres Navarre series for adults, The Heroes of Olympus series, and The Maze of Bones, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list.
5. Veronica Roth
Image Via YouTube
Divergent author Veronica Roth is the youngest author on this list, having penned hit YA dystopian tale Divergent at just nineteen, and since selling over 40 million copies of Divergent and its sequels. She had a publishing deal before graduating Northwestern University, and each of the books, Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant were made into Hollywood films films.
Image Via Summit Entertainment
In January 2017, Roth released a new YA novel, Carve the Mark, the sequel to which, The Fates Divide came out in April 2018.
