I was intrigued by “The Bestselling Children’s Books of 2012” in Publisher’s Weekly (March 17) and wanted to take a closer look at some aspects of the e-book list. E-book sales start with 200,000+ in sales and work their way down to 25,000+. There are 153 books on the list. Here are some fast facts:
- Of the 7 books in the 200,000+ category, three spots are held by The Hunger Games Trilogy and two by the Divergent trilogy.
- The Hunger Games trilogy has sold 12.7 million e-books.
- Rick Riordan’s Olympians series sold 1.27 million e-books.
- The Twilight series sold almost half a million e-books.
Not surprisingly dystopian/fantasy/paranormal/otherworldy books dominate all lists (paper and e-).
Some delightful surprises (for me) on the list:
- The Borrowers by Mary Norton (56,364)
- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (41, 347)
- Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate deCamillo (35,589)
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- A couple of Ivy and Bean books by Annie Barrows, illus. by Sophie Blackall (28,618)
- And one lone picture book! (unless I missed something): Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illus. by Tom Lichtenheld. (25,000)
There were a few other non-dystopian etc books, but I didn’t include them here because I think kids may be buying them for school reading assignments (and a few in the above list might be reading assignments as well). As more students have e-readers and tablets, I think e-book sales will increase.
As for the picture book (which is a favorite of mine), this is a static e-book, not an app or anything fancy, so that’s pretty amazing.
I will continue to keep an eye on children’s e-book sales. How many e-books are on your device? How many are free vs. purchased? Do you have a maximum price that you won’t go over for an e-book?
