Agency Publishers and Pricing Top Debut DBW E-Book Best-Seller List
Agency publishers and higher price points dominate the new Digital Book World e-book best-seller list, a new weekly venture from Digital Book World in partnership with Iobyte Solutions.
Scholastic, with its popular Hunger Games series, and Soho Press, a New York-based independent publisher, were the only two publishers outside of the six largest in the U.S. to break the top 25 on the list, which measures the top-selling e-books across five of the largest e-booksellers for the week ending Aug. 18.
Random House controlled the top of the list. Unlike in past months on other best-seller lists, however, the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy no longer has the three top spots. The recent release, Gone Girl, clocked in at No. 3.
Publishers worried about low-priced e-books cutting into sales of their higher priced competitors should take note — only three books below $3.00 cracked the top 25: best-selling author Lee Child’s Deep Down (Random House, No. 11); Lene Kaaberbol’s and Agnete Friis’s The Boy in the Suitcase (Soho Press, a New York-based independent publisher, No. 12); and Jonathan Tropper’s novel This Is Where I Leave You (Penguin, No. 20).
An uncharacteristically low price for a Random House release, Deep Down is a novella that was released in mid-July, which explains the $1.99 price.
The Boy in the Suitcase was released in November 2011 and shot up the best-seller list last week due to an Amazon promotion. At Amazon, the book is priced at $1.39; it’s $1.99 at some other retailers.
This Is Where I Leave You is a relatively old release to be on the best-seller list: It first went on sale November 2009. It hit the list after its price was dropped to $2.99 last week.
See the rest of the top 25 selling e-books the week ending Aug. 18 below and the top selling e-books at each of the following price points:
– Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Priced $10.00 and Above
– Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Priced $8.00 – $9.99
– Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Priced $3.00 – $7.99
– Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Priced $0.00 – $2.99
Related: Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Methodology
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| Rank* | Title | Publisher | Price** | Change† | ||||
| 1 (n/a) | Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | Random House | $ 9.99 | – | ||||
| 2 (n/a) | Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | Random House | $ 9.99 | – | ||||
| 3 (n/a) | Gone Girl: A Novel | Random House | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 4 (n/a) | Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | Random House | $ 9.99 | – | ||||
| 5 (n/a) | Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) | Scholastic | $ 5.99 | – | ||||
| 6 (n/a) | Bared to You: A Crossfire Novel | Penguin | $ 7.99 | – | ||||
| 7 (n/a) | Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) | Scholastic | $ 5.99 | – | ||||
| 8 (n/a) | The Hunger Games (Hunger Games Series #1) | Scholastic | $ 5.00 | – | ||||
| 9 (n/a) | Fifty Shades Trilogy Bundle: Fifty Shades of Grey; Fifty Shades Darker; Fifty Shades Freed | Random House | $ 29.99 | – | ||||
| 10 (n/a) | Where We Belong | Macmillan | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 11 (n/a) | Deep Down: A Jack Reacher Story | Random House | $ 1.99 | – | ||||
| 12 (n/a) | The Boy in the Suitcase | Soho Press | $ 1.39 | – | ||||
| 13 (n/a) | Black List: A Thriller | Simon & Schuster | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 14 (n/a) | I, Michael Bennett | Hachette | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 15 (n/a) | Friends Forever: A Novel | Random House | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 16 (n/a) | Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure | Hachette | $ 9.99 | – | ||||
| 17 (n/a) | The Inn at Rose Harbor: A Novel | Random House | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 18 (n/a) | The Light Between Oceans: A Novel | Simon & Schuster | $ 11.99 | – | ||||
| 19 (n/a) | Shadow of Night: A Novel | Penguin | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 20 (n/a) | This Is Where I Leave You: A Novel | Penguin | $ 2.99 | – | ||||
| 21 (n/a) | Odd Apocalypse: An Odd Thomas Novel | Random House | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 22 (n/a) | Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel | Penguin | $ 9.99 | – | ||||
| 23 (n/a) | Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption | Random House | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 24 (n/a) | Sweet Talk | Penguin | $ 12.99 | – | ||||
| 25 (n/a) | Black Order (Sigma Force Series #3) | HarperCollins | $ 0.99 | – | ||||
| * Previous week’s list rank in parentheses | ||||||||
| ** Price reflects minimum price across all retailers throughout the week. Price may vary between retailers and may change throughout the week. Contact Iobyte Solutions for more information on e-book pricing. † Since this is the debut week for the list, the number of spots each e-book moved up or down the list from the previous week is left blank. | ||||||||
| Powered by Iobyte Solutions | ||||||||
See the rest of the e-book best-sellers for the week ending 8-18-12:
– Digital Book World E-Book Best-Seller List: Top 25 Overall
– Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Priced $10.00 and Above
– Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Priced $8.00 – $9.99
– Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Priced $3.00 – $7.99
– Digital Book World Best-Selling E-Books Priced $0.00 – $2.99
Great lists. But, umm, what about author names for each book? You’ve left off that critical piece of data.
Hey Raelene–
See my response to the comment below. We will be adding authors soon.
Where are the author names? Aren’t they important since they wrote the book? Great idea on the pricing breakdown, but seeing a list to 50 or 100 would be better than 10 where the hot trend or a powerful promotion can skew the top of the list.
Hey Anna–
Thanks for the comment! First off, our methodology is designed to limit the effect of one-time promotions and one-day sales spikes: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/digital-book-world-e-book-best-seller-list-methodology/
Second, you’re not the first to call for authors on the list. We left them off mostly for space considerations, but if/when we are able to add more, authors will be at or near the top of the list!
What, publishers get credit but the AUTHORS don’t? C’mon.