Only one book in Amazon’s Top 20 sellers of 2013 has sold more print copies than Kindle editions – Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg.
Dan Brown’s Inferno leads the overall list (including print and Kindle sales) while James Patterson has three entries in the top 20, although none of them is among the leading 10. Other big sellers include Lee Child, John Grisham and Stephen King. Mysteries and thrillers make up 11 of the best-selling 20.
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith/J K Rowling ended up in third spot overall after being rescued from mediocre sales in July when it was revealed that Rowling was the real author. It proved to be a bonanza for Amazon’s Kindle sales as the short first print run soon sold out and thousands of readers downloaded ebooks while further print runs were being prepared.
The top-selling self-published book is Damaged by H M Ward in 14th spot and other self-published best sellers include J S Scott and J C Reed.
Humans of New York was a big seller in print books.Sandberg’s book is in fifth place in the Amazon Top 20 overall (including print and Kindle sales) but is the leader in print only, beating Brown’s Inferno into second place. The breakout best seller in the print area is Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, a photo book based on Stanton’s massively successful blog.
Over a fifth of Top 100 best-sellers of 2014 are self-published