So how did Star Wars books sell in ’08?

Andrew Wheeler has made a habit of rounding up genre bestsellers from Publishers Weekly’s list, and if you separate out the Star Wars stuff, an interesting trend emerges:

In Adult Hardcovers:

  • Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sean Williams, 103,232
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss, 101,146
  • Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible, Troy Denning, 101,034

And in New Children’s paperback:

  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Tracey West, 190,700
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Battle at Teth, Kirsten Mayer, 186,282
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The New Padawan, Eric Stevens, 152,661
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Intergalactic Adventure: Activity Book, no author listed, 119,621
  • Star Wars Fandex, Christopher Cerasi, 103,191

In short, The Clone Wars kids books sold significantly more copies than the adult books. Behold, the power of a theatrical release…

Interesting, if rather sad factoid: Stephenie Meyer outsells everyone. No, seriously. But then, in a year where Dean Koontz outsells Stephen King, can we really be surprised?

10 Replies to “So how did Star Wars books sell in ’08?”

  1. So these books sell ~150K copies… and 2-3MM people watch an episode. Don’t let people who debate continuity get a hold of these numbers! ;)

  2. I’ve gotta admit, this saddens me. I mean, I’ve seen every TCW episode a couple times, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all, and I’m thoroughly looked forward to Season 2, butttt….

  3. We need to tally how well the comics do as well, compared to other titles. I know that The Clone Wars Adventures comics always sell out at my comic store I go to!

  4. As long as that’s not ALL they’re reading. Even Twilight is acceptable, if it’s just one among many. I can’t deny reading my fair share of 80’s/90’s YA crap (R.L. Stine, Sweet Valley, etc.) as a kid.

  5. don’t forget The Three Investigators!

    anyway.. so do the SW paperbacks do as well as the hardcovers, or not as well – i’d think that cost is a factor in readership — those kid’s books aren’t $27 a pop like the hardcovers are.

  6. Stooge, there is NOTHING shameful about The Far Side. NOTHING.

    James: I don’t know – none of the adult PBs showed up. I think Wheeler would have included them if they had.

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