Simon & Schuster Tops Ebook Best-Seller List, Brings Publisher Diversity to Top Ten
After a three-week hiatus due to Hurricane Sandy, the DBW Ebook Best-Seller List is back — and with a very different complexion than before. For one thing, a publisher not named Random House or Penguin has taken the top spot: Simon & Schuster, with its title The Last Man: A Novel by Vince Flynn.
The book went on sale Nov. 13 — just last week — and instantly hit No. 1 at both the Amazon and Barnes & Noble. A flurry of promotions at both leading retailers’ sites before publication date helped propel the title up the best-seller ranks. It doesn’t hurt that Flynn’s Mitch Rapp political thriller series, of which this is the latest title, is already popular among readers. Perhaps we’ll see Rapp back-list books like American Assassin and Kill Shot crawl up the ranks in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Simon & Schuster is leading the charge toward a more diverse top-ten when it comes to publishers. Hachette has a few titles in the top ten now, including James Patterson’s Merry Christmas, Alex Cross at No. 4, which was released on Nov. 12 and is perhaps being aided by the Alex Cross movie now in theaters. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has also made its debut on our top-25 list with Life of Pi by Yann Martel, a back-list title from 2002 that may also be seeing a resurgence because of the eponymous upcoming film, which hits theaters this coming week.
See the rest of the the best-seller lists for the week ending Nov. 17:
– 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.
More best-seller analysis:
– Insights on High-Priced Best-Sellers, Romance Ebooks and Sandy’s Wrath
– How Amazon and Barnes & Noble Price Changes Affected Sales of HarperCollins Ebooks
– Ebook Publisher Power Rankings: Random and Penguin on Top
– Best of the Best-Selling Ebooks: Aug. – Oct.
Sponsored by:
| Rank* | Title | Author | Publisher | Price** | Change† |
| 1 | The Last Man: A Novel | Vince Flynn | Simon & Schuster | $ 14.99 | – |
| 2 | The Racketeer | John Grisham | Random House | $ 12.99 | – |
| 3 | The Perfect Hope: Book Three of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy | Nora Roberts | Penguin | $ 9.99 | – |
| 4 | Merry Christmas, Alex Cross | James Patterson | Hachette | $ 14.99 | – |
| 5 | Gone Girl: A Novel | Gillian Flynn | Random House | $ 12.99 | – |
| 6 | Plum Island (John Corey) | Nelson DeMille | Hachette | $ 0.99 | – |
| 7 | Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three Of The Fifty Shades Trilogy | E L James | Random House | $ 9.99 | – |
| 8 | Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel | Sylvia Day | Penguin | $ 9.99 | – |
| 9 | Life of Pi | Yann Martel | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | $ 7.01 | – |
| 10 | NYPD Red | James Patterson; Marshall Karp | Hachette | $ 12.99 | – |
| 11 | Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | E L James | Random House | $ 9.99 | – |
| 12 | Fifty Shades Of Grey: Book One Of The Fifty Shades Trilogy | E L James | Random House | $ 9.99 | – |
| 13 | Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) | Suzanne Collins | Scholastic | $ 5.99 | – |
| 14 | Leave Me Breathless | Cherrie Lynn | Samhain Publishing | $ 4.24 | – |
| 15 | Bared to You: A Crossfire Novel | Sylvia Day | Penguin | $ 9.99 | – |
| 16 | Only Time Will Tell (The Clifton Chronicles) | Jeffrey Archer | Macmillan | $ 2.99 | – |
| 17 | Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) | Suzanne Collins | Scholastic | $ 5.99 | – |
| 18 | The Panther (John Corey) | Nelson DeMille | Hachette | $ 12.99 | – |
| 19 | The Bone Bed (Kay Scarpetta Series #20) | Patricia Cornwell | Penguin | $ 12.99 | – |
| 20 | Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot | Bill O’Reilly; Martin Dugard | Macmillan | $ 12.99 | – |
| 21 | Poseidon’s Arrow | Clive Cussler; Dirk Cussler | Penguin | $ 14.99 | – |
| 22 | Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife | Eben Alexander III M.D. | Simon & Schuster | $ 9.99 | – |
| 23 | The Forgotten | David Baldacci | Hachette | $ 14.99 | – |
| 24 | Notorious Nineteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel (Stephanie Plum Novels) | Janet Evanovich | Random House | $ 13.99 | – |
| 25 | The Marriage Mistake | Jennifer Probst | Simon & Schuster | $ 7.99 | – |
* Previous week’s list rank will not appear in parentheses as it usually does because we have been unable to compile the list for the past two weeks due to Hurricane Sandy.
** 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.
† Because we are not looking at the change in rankings from three weeks ago, there is no change in ranking this week.
Methodology available here.
