tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post3753023637867004068..comments2024-03-17T00:00:13.417+00:00Comments on The Wertzone: SF&F's All-Time Sales ListAdam Whiteheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-11373348972097621182013-01-10T00:38:22.829+00:002013-01-10T00:38:22.829+00:00Any new info? I was wondering where WoT is sitting...Any new info? I was wondering where WoT is sitting now with the new release. I stupidly claimed to a friend that I bet it was close to Harry Potter before I actually googled it :P <br /><br />oopsVanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02534892348898576933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-9462726576155217602011-06-23T14:09:42.654+00:002011-06-23T14:09:42.654+00:00I can only put authors on the list whose figures a...I can only put authors on the list whose figures are publicly available. The list is quite old now and I'm pondering doing a new edition, which should take into account increased sales. That's probably a few months away though.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-59021681000372827172011-06-23T00:23:20.858+00:002011-06-23T00:23:20.858+00:00What about Madelaine L'Engle, Ursula K. LeGuin...What about Madelaine L'Engle, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Diana Wynne Johnes? How about Anne McCaffrey?Diane Rosehttp://www.spacesongs.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-39780324415370847112008-11-06T23:17:00.000+00:002008-11-06T23:17:00.000+00:00Cheers. That will help with the next edition of th...Cheers. That will help with the next edition of the list.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-38278900856474134152008-11-06T23:05:00.000+00:002008-11-06T23:05:00.000+00:00Dan Abnett has now sold well over 1 million Englis...Dan Abnett has now sold well over 1 million English language books for GW's Black Library.<BR/><BR/>Source: http://www.blacklibrary.com/blog/default.asp?id=http://blacklibraryblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/3242318688526479580Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-15767275155129610302008-10-27T15:38:00.000+00:002008-10-27T15:38:00.000+00:00A writer would be able to tell you more, but I thi...A writer would be able to tell you more, but I think the general idea is the writer gets paid an advance which has to be paid back out of his or her percentage from the sales of the book, and once the advance has been paid back they then get that percentage fee, which I understand is negotiable but in the area of 10-15% of every hardcover sold, somewhat less per paperback.<BR/><BR/>The details vary depending on the author's profile and how successful they are.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-51792125044869307202008-10-27T04:33:00.000+00:002008-10-27T04:33:00.000+00:00Surely there must be some concrete method of actua...Surely there must be some concrete method of actually tracking how many physical books have been bought? Or maybe that is too hard and just the "in print" figures are the only type of "accurate" figures available. Or are they not even available?<BR/><BR/>How strange when I thought, apart from the advance, authors were also paid on number of units sold - earning a certain dollar value or percentage per unit (I'd imagine something 5% per unit would be a bare minimum).<BR/><BR/>Or am I totally naive? It'd be interesting if someone could write up (or link to) a little article to inform the general public about just how authors earn their dosh from their paper babies.chaesJebushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00985667608602099242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-22024582008165472372008-10-27T01:30:00.000+00:002008-10-27T01:30:00.000+00:00No details that I could find. Ideally, he should h...No details that I could find. Ideally, he should have sold 1 billion copies, but I suspect the truth would be rather depressing.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-30741343190824331872008-10-27T00:52:00.000+00:002008-10-27T00:52:00.000+00:00What about Gene Wolfe?What about Gene Wolfe?Tree Froghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02332609654612510967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-90838206390763243222008-10-27T00:50:00.000+00:002008-10-27T00:50:00.000+00:00This is awesome - Neil Gaiman and John Ringo stopp...This is awesome - Neil Gaiman and John Ringo stopping by to drop knowledge.<BR/><BR/>Awesome, Wert.Tree Froghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02332609654612510967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-59941622661639320912008-10-26T16:56:00.000+00:002008-10-26T16:56:00.000+00:00Hi Neil, thanks for stopping by and cheers for the...Hi Neil, thanks for stopping by and cheers for the information. I'll change that right away.<BR/><BR/>John, I was looking at how many sales there were to customers, but that seems to be difficult to ascertain as publishers tend to like to say 'books in print' rather than 'books sold', which can be a big difference. Oh yeah, and the international sales thing is obviously dependent on the individual author and the extent of his foreign deals.<BR/><BR/>Gav, the figures involved are somewhat mind-boggling. A very rough count from the list gives us somewhere well over 1 billion SF&F books sold, which is staggering.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-67542102876078690332008-10-26T15:39:00.000+00:002008-10-26T15:39:00.000+00:00Out of the 25 listed I've read all the top 6, and ...Out of the 25 listed I've read all the top 6, and 3 from the other 19. <BR/><BR/>So I've only contributed (paid for) books from 9 of them some and each of those more than once. <BR/><BR/>So it would be interesting see how those figures boil down into individuals. <BR/><BR/>Take Neil as he's here and might still be about. I've bought American Gods, Fragile Things, Smoke and Mirrors Twice (one was the American edition when I couldn't wait for the UK edition. I bought Storm Constantine's short stories at the time which were again the US edition - think Americans like Short Stories more), Neverwhere, and this week the first two volumes of Absolute Sandman arrived. I've also bought comics including Justice (now that's old) and Death and Sandman in my time.<BR/><BR/>But sticking with books I've bought 7 plus Good Omens (does that count?). Anyway, so what I was thinking is that given that one reader can buy anything from 1 to say 20 books (including the Library Sandmans) you see that even though the sales are vast they could be generated by a far lesser amount of people actually buying books. <BR/><BR/>Meanings that JK Rowling could have reached anything 50 to 350 million from individual from sales but then that excludes people that have borrow, swapped or bought second hand. <BR/><BR/>And now I'm loosing the will to live. <BR/><BR/>I was attempting to make the figures more manageable but by any count the reach of authors can be vast. <BR/><BR/>But there are still authors that I've never heard of no matter how many books they've seemed to sell - sorry John.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-70718810034934307762008-10-26T14:52:00.000+00:002008-10-26T14:52:00.000+00:00Thank God Neil posted those numbers. I was getting...Thank God Neil posted those numbers. I was getting very uncomfortable.<BR/><BR/>The question becomes are you talking about 'across the counter' sales or 'to the chains' sales? IF you're talking about 'to the chains' sales I'm pushing about 3 million at this point. (As of last count.) Including taking off earlier returns and so forth and including foreign which, alas, you are far wrong on being anywhere near the same as US.<BR/><BR/>And only 'mildly' controversial?<BR/><BR/>I'm offended.<BR/>:-)<BR/><BR/><BR/>JohnUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15045054581390907928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-33616973524995970272008-10-26T14:28:00.000+00:002008-10-26T14:28:00.000+00:00I think we're pushing seven million Sandman graphi...I think we're pushing seven million Sandman graphic novels now (although two million through bookscan sources since 2001 is quite possible) in the US. Last time I checked Sandman and related graphic novels were selling about 300,000 a year. Worldwide, and if you include Sandman individual issues, it's obviously a lot more. <BR/><BR/>You could add on a few more million for US and international sales of the prose books. It's much harder to find out how many books you've sold internationally than you'd think (I had to try and do it recently for Coraline, as the movie company wanted to know: most foreign publishers give you an advance for a license, and then either send you royalties or go quiet until their license expires and they need a new one, but often don't send out easily accessible numbers. Eventually we settled on "over a million copies sold internationally" as being true, but how many over a million god alone knows).Neil Gaimanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09003041275248674982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-27969028889207247822008-10-26T04:20:00.000+00:002008-10-26T04:20:00.000+00:00Yay for Eoin Colfer! He isn't only big in YA circl...Yay for Eoin Colfer! He isn't only big in YA circles...<BR/><BR/>but this is an eye-opener... thanks Wert!sckmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02087661490111526809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-67790675050829156552008-10-26T01:49:00.000+00:002008-10-26T01:49:00.000+00:00No, it was £500,000 in 1999 money (about $800,000 ...No, it was £500,000 in 1999 money (about $800,000 back in those more favourable exchange rate times) according to SE in his 2002 SFX interview for when HoC was released. Actually your sums work out, since that's about half, making his UK figures by themselves about 375,000, which would not appear unreasonable given the 250,000 figure given directly by Bantam UK in 2006 for two more books in the series plus a growing profile. That's what I extrapolated the 500,000 inc. US sales from.<BR/><BR/>It's also worth remembering that Bantam publish the books in both the UK and Canada, and I believe the contract and sales figures refer to both territories.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-83904747526257558242008-10-26T01:24:00.000+00:002008-10-26T01:24:00.000+00:00Steven Erikson's 1999 contract with Bantam UK was ...Steven Erikson's 1999 contract with Bantam UK was reportedly worth $1.6 million for the 10 book Malazan series. Since he 's most of the way through that now and assuming that Bantam has at least been getting their money's worth in sales it's probably possible to estimate how many books he's sold. The hardcover printings are very small in the UK so it would be mostly paperback. I would think his UK number alone would be 750k+ copies to date. There's still US sales to add to that but that would be harder to estimate since his hardcover debut, Gardens of the Moon flopped so badly. Subsequent books, especially paperback editions have probably done much better.Ed S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15580602235331051071noreply@blogger.com