Fifty Shades and Hunger Games Move Down Best-Seller List, Making Room For New Titles
If you’re wondering where to find Fifty Shades of Grey on the latest iteration of our ebook best-seller list, you’ll have to look past the top tier.
For the first time since launching our the list in August, no Fifty Shades of Grey book is in the top five; only one is in the top ten at this point and only two of the three Hunger Games titles are in our top 25. The stranglehold that those two trilogies have had on the ebook best-seller list has come to an end.
What has replaced the popular trilogies are the usual suspects with some surprises sprinkled in.
The Usual Suspects
Some familiar names hit the top five this week to join long-time residents Sylvia Day and Gillian Flynn: Patricia Cornwell, John Grisham and James Patterson. Cornwell’s The Bone Bed (Penguin) jumped up six spots this week to rank at No. 2. Grisham’s The Racketeer (Random House) came out this past week (Oct. 23) and rose 19 spots on our list to rank at No. 4. And Patterson’s NYPD Red (Hachette), nudged up one spot to No. 5.
Surprises
Two self-published titles are currently in the top 25: Down to You by M. Leighton; and When Wishes Collide by Barbara Freethy. In a way, neither should be a surprise at this point. Down to You has been in our top 25 for three of the past four weeks, aside from last week. And When Wishes Collide is by best-selling author Barbara Freethy, who has found some success publishing her own books since leaving her publisher Simon and Schuster.
Another surprise in the list is The Last Lecture, the inspiring 2008 book from Hyperion about a dying professor’s last words to the world. Usually, titles from 2008 don’t hit best-seller lists. This ebook has benefited from a price decrease to $1.99 starting in Sept. and inclusion in an Amazon “Gold Box” daily deal on Oct. 20.
These three titles, along with some other movement in the list, has resulted in a dramatic drop in average price across our top 25. The average price of an ebook best-seller last week was $10.40, more than a dollar lower than the previous week when it was $11.79.
See the rest of the the best-seller lists for the week ending Oct. 27:
– 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
Read and comment on our methodology.
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| Rank* | Title | Author | Publisher | Price** | Change |
| 1 (1) | Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel | Sylvia Day | Penguin | $ 9.99 | – |
| 2 (8) | The Bone Bed (Kay Scarpetta Series #20) | Patricia Cornwell | Penguin | $ 14.99 | +6 |
| 3 (2) | Gone Girl: A Novel | Gillian Flynn | Random House | $ 12.99 | -1 |
| 4 (23) | The Racketeer | John Grisham | Random House | $ 12.99 | +19 |
| 5 (6) | NYPD Red | James Patterson; Marshall Karp | Hachette | $ 12.99 | +1 |
| 6 (n/a) | The Last Lecture | Randy Pausch; Jeffrey Zaslow | Hyperion | $ 1.99 | New |
| 7 (3) | Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | E L James | Random House | $ 9.99 | -4 |
| 8 (n/a) | Down to You | M. Leighton | Self-published | $ 3.99 | New |
| 9 (n/a) | The Panther (John Corey) | Nelson DeMille | Hachette | $ 14.99 | New |
| 10 (10) | Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot | Bill O’Reilly; Martin Dugard | Macmillan | $ 12.99 | – |
| 11 (11) | The Casual Vacancy | J.K. Rowling | Hachette | $ 14.99 | – |
| 12 (12) | Bared to You: A Crossfire Novel | Sylvia Day | Penguin | $ 9.99 | – |
| 13 (13) | Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) | Suzanne Collins | Scholastic | $ 9.99 | – |
| 14 (5) | The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, Book Three) | Rick Riordan | Hyperion | $ 10.99 | -9 |
| 15 (3) | Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | E L James | Random House | $ 9.99 | -12 |
| 16 (4) | Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | E L James | Random House | $ 9.99 | -12 |
| 17 (16) | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | Stephen Chbosky | Simon & Schuster | $ 9.99 | -1 |
| 18 (15) | Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) | Suzanne Collins | Scholastic | $ 9.99 | -3 |
| 19 (n/a) | Hidden (House of Night Novels) | P. C. Cast; Kristin Cast | Macmillan | $ 9.99 | New |
| 20 (14) | The Twelve (Passage Trilogy Series #2) | Justin Cronin | Random House | $ 13.99 | -6 |
| 21 (n/a) | Keeping Faith | Jodi Picoult | HarperCollins | $ 2.99 | New |
| 22 (17) | Mad River | John Sandford | Penguin | $ 12.99 | -5 |
| 23 (n/a) | When Wishes Collide | Barbara Freethy | Self-published | $ 4.29 | New |
| 24 (21) | The Perfect Hope: Book Three of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy | Nora Roberts | Penguin | $ 9.99 | -3 |
| 25 (n/a) | Cloud Atlas: A Novel | David Mitchell | Random House | $ 11.99 | New |
* 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.
Methodology available here.
