The End of All Things on the USA Today Bestseller List

Something I missed when it happened last week, because, you know, on tour and all that: The End of All Things debuted on the USA Today Bestseller list at #31, which is the highest a book of mine has ever gotten on the USA Today list. As comparisons, Lock In clocked in at #107, and Redshirts came in at #55. So that’s a pretty positive thing, I have to say.

Interestingly, despite this being my highest charting book on the USA Today list, The End of All Things did not hit the NYT Hardcover Fiction list for its debut week. How does that happen? Basically because the particular lists track different things — the NYT list tracks fiction hardcover sales specifically whilst the USA Today list tracks every book regardless of category (which is how the #30 book on the USA Today list is Felicia Day’s book, which is non-fiction), and also because both organizations also do a bit of sampling and filtering to build their lists. I’ve gone into how bestseller lists differ before, so I won’t dig in here; suffice to say that these lists are complicated beasts.

Nevertheless, I am delighted to see The End of All Things doing well and hitting a new height on the USA Today list. It’s nice when all that work pays off, sales-wise, at least.

18 Comments on “The End of All Things on the USA Today Bestseller List”

  1. I’m glad that you’re glad, as you understandably would be. (USA Today is rubbish though.)

  2. Glad to hear you’re up there on the USA today bestseller list! I was concerned, because rumors have been circulating on the internet that you don’t actually sell very many books. ;-)

  3. @anzanhoshin – that’s what I thought, but when Tammy made the USA TODAY Bestseller list for Lady Knight, both our Moms and several of our friends got in touch to congratulate her!

    When she made No. 1 on the NY TIMES Bestseller List for the same book? We didn’t know until her Agent told her….

    So what’s more significant? The prestige of the TIMES, or the bestseller list everybody you know sees?

  4. Congrats! Loving it by the way. Only 40 pages to go (Stopped myself from reading too fast to savor). Without spoilers, I really enjoy how you have competing parties that are all trying to do what they think is right and maybe at worst some are acting little too much in their own self-interest (but that is how economists made them), ignorant to the big picture or need to shake things up because they became disfranchised as things played out. I appreciate the shades of gray.

  5. Gratz John. Iam picking it up on audio. Haven’t gotten to it yet. Hope you cut down on the use of the word ‘said’. I saw an interview with you where you ‘said’ you wanted to do that because it was distracting to audio listeners. It was a little distracting since you have alot of dialogue in your books.

    Looking forward to seeing where things are going and I like the twist with the vignette style.

  6. I just recently read your Old Man’s War – which I thought was awesome. Have Ghost Brigade waiting on me as soon as I finish Seveneves. You are a great writer, so congratulations!

  7. (dammit, WP, I did NOT press the button!)

    Also downloading your books.

    So irregardless of the journalistic quality of USA Today, I think their method of book counting is probably closer to finding out exactly how many people are buying the book in total.

    So congrats! Pretty good for a guy who doesn’t sell anything to the masses, only to the librul elite… wait, which paper is which now? ;)

%d bloggers like this: