A Year of Picking Bestsellers

This week, ABA released a list of the 2004 Book Sense Bestsellers, a compilation of the year's most popular titles at independent bookstores. The list, which is based on sales from January 1 through December 31, 2004, as reported by hundreds of independent booksellers with Book Sense nationwide, clearly indicates that booksellers know what their customers like to read and that handselling works: 41 percent of the bestselling books of 2004 were first nominated by independent booksellers for one of the Book Sense Picks lists, or its predecessor, the Book Sense 76, prior to appearing on the bestseller lists.

"Book Sense Picks such as The Da Vinci Code and Reading Lolita in Tehran became not only bestsellers at independent bookstores, but nationwide," said Meg Smith, associate director of Book Sense marketing. "These are great examples of why customers shop at independent bookstores: Because of their depth of knowledge and passion for great writing, independent booksellers are often identifying and handselling titles with bestseller potential before they make it to any list."

The 2004 Book Sense Bestseller List is broken into five categories: trade paperback nonfiction, trade paperback fiction, hardcover nonfiction, hardcover fiction, and children's fiction and illustrated. (For the complete list, click here.)

It is not surprising that Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday) was the bestselling book on the Book Sense hardcover fiction list for 2004. What may surprise some, however, is that independent booksellers were recommending this book in early 2003, before the book appeared on any national bestseller list -- in fact, before the book was even published.

In nominating the title for the March/April 2003 Book Sense 76 (published on February 13, 2003), Jeff Azbill of Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Jackson, Tennessee wrote: "Everyone here has read and loved the advance copy of this smart new thriller. This is one of those rare books that comes along and makes you question everything you thought you knew about religion, art, and what you were taught in school. It's fast-paced, enthralling, and simply impossible to put down."

Millions of readers agreed. The book, which was published on March 18, 2003, hit the Book Sense Bestseller List just a week later, on March 25, 2003, and has remained there ever since.

Topping the trade paperback nonfiction category for 2004 is Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Random House). The book is another great example of an independent handsell that eventually became a bestseller. Bookseller Terrell Aldredge of Wide World Books & Maps in Seattle nominated it for the 2004 January/February Picks list, which was announced in early December 2003. Three weeks later, on December 30, the title first appeared on the Book Sense Bestseller List and has remained there ever since.

One of the bestselling titles in the trade paperback fiction category was Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner (Riverhead), which has been on the Book Sense Bestseller List for 37 weeks. The hardcover edition of Hosseini's book was first nominated by Danielle Freeman of Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado, for the May/June 2003 Book Sense 76 list.

In the hardcover nonfiction category, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (Little, Brown) was nominated by Brian Case of Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York, for the 2004 June Picks list (announced on May 6), and the title appeared on the Book Sense Bestseller List on July 6.

The 2004 Book Sense Bestseller compilation, while predictable in some respects, also illustrates that independent booksellers are on the "cutting edge" when it comes to being able to determine those titles that will see long-term sales success. The strong correlation between a Book Sense Pick and its early appearance on the Book Sense Bestseller List underscores the handselling talents of these booksellers, and sends a message to publishers that prepublication galleys and advance reading copies remain very effective marketing tools for the independent marketplace. --David Grogan