Clarkesworld Magazine and Wyrm Publishing

Books
1 - Brian Keene's Fear by Brian Keene (Signed Trade Paperback)
2 - The Last Unicorn: The Lost Version by Peter S. Beagle (Signed Hardcover)
3 - Rite: Short Work by Tad Williams (Signed Hardcover)
4 - Gods and Pawns by Kage Baker (Hardcover)
5 - The White Tyger by Paul Park (Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Interzone
2 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
3 - Realms of Fantasy
4 - Phantom
5 - Analog

As expected, last week's bestsellers faced tough competition from some new releases.  Outside of the new releases, sales this week slowed a little.  Have to work on our PR to help continue to clear some of that inventory we have.  To that end, the big sale we were running is not scheduled to end anytime soon.  I'm actually adding more books to the pile, so check in every now and then and get yourself a bargain... great as a last minute Valentine's Day gift for a book lover!  It won't work for me, but maybe someone of you have loved ones who'd enjoy it.

Books
1 - Voices from the Street by Philip K. Dick (Hardcover)
2 - Gods and Pawns by Kage Baker (Hardcover)
3 - The White Tyger by Paul Park (Hardcover)
4 - The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume One: To Be Continued by Robert Silverberg (Hardcover)
5 - Clickers by J. F. Gonzalez and Mark Williams (Signed Numbered Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Phantom
2 - Analog
3 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
4 - Realms of Fantasy
5 - Asimov's

Back by popular demand!  Ok, back because one person asked.  I had become a bit lazy and stopped posting these right after Christmas.  Next week is likely to see a great deal of change for the books.  We've received two signed limiteds with reasonable preorders: Rite by Tad Williams and The Last Unicorn: The Lost Version and one book with a lot of preorders: Brian Keene's Fear.  I've been shipping those as fast as I can. Good news is that I may end up with help on the shipping side of things. Depends on how things work out.  I'm very picky about how things are packed.

The following is based on 2006 sales data from Clarkesworld Books. All books and magazines were sold online or at conventions. Where possible, I have listed 2005 sales data rankings.

Books Sold by Author
1 - Keene, Brian (2)
2 - Erikson, Steven (1)
3 - Powers, Tim (-)
4 - Martin, George R. R. (8)
5 - Hill, Joe (-)
6 - Esslemont, Ian Cameron (3)
7 - Kiernan, Caitlin R. (-)
8 - Lumley, Brian (-)
9 - Moore, Christopher (-)
10 - Stross, Charles (-)

Brian Keene and Steven Erikson switched places this year.  Brian is a great supporter of our store.  He regularly plugs us on his blog, forum, and website.  He also made us the sole place (outside of his signings) where you can get inscriptions.  He had a few limited editions and all his paperbacks continue to do well for us.

We have a pretty nice following from Steven Erikson's fans too.  They've routinely pushed us on their forum and a lot of his US fans come to us to get the UK limited and trades of books that won't be available here for a while.  Ian Cameron Esslemont (the only author in the top ten who had a single book earn them their place in this list)  writes in the same world  (the world he co-developed) as Erikson.  So the fan base overlaps considerably.  Imports did VERY well.

A lot of new people in the list, but people like Tim Powers and GRRM can go some time between books, so it's anyone guess if they can come back next here.  As a fan and reader, I certainly hope so.  I don't think we have any worries about Charles Stross publishing a good amount of new books.

Joe Hill had 20th Century Ghosts (which shows now sign of slowing) racking up sales for what seems like forever.  Still one of the best collections I've read.  Yet another import. 

Caitlin R. Kiernan, Christopher Moore, and Brian Lumley certainly have more books scheduled for 2007.  Brian had a good bump in this years standing thanks to some older limited editions that we had in stock.  Caitlin received a similar boost, her sales on current books are much better.  Most of Christopher Moore's sales this year were due to the signed copies of A Dirty Job.  Will Love Bites do as well? 


Bestselling Books by Title
1 - The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson (tpb, hc)
2 - Night of Knives by Ian Cameron Esslemont (tpb, hc)
3 - The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin
4 - Three Days to Never by Tim Powers (hc, limited hc)
5 - Twentieth Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (tpb, hc, slipcased hc)
6 - The Rutting Season by Brian Keene (tpb, hc)
7 - Take the Long Way Home by Brian Keene
8 - The Healthy Dead by Steven Erikson (pb, hc)
9 - The Thousandfold Thought by R. Scott Bakker
10 - Blindsight by Peter Watts

Yes, this is a little unusual.  Any edition of the book was counted as a sale for that title.  I've indicated the formats of copies sold that were used to create the totals.  I considered three separate lists and that might have been more fair to the mass market paperback authors, but looking at the final numbers, all the combinations of formats were simultaneous or near simultaneous releases.

Three of the top five books sold in our store were imports.  That should tell me something and it will certainly be something I think about over the next few weeks.

Interestingly enough, our #1 author doesn't have a book in the top five, but he has two in the top ten and all his paperbacks fell into the top 20.  Our #2 author had the #2 and #8 books and one other in the top 20.

Signed books definitely made a difference in sales.  We had signed copies of books numbers 3 through 9 in different editions.

I'm very pleased that Blindsight made the top 10.  I've made no secret that this was my favorite novel of the year.  Quite a few people seemed to be paying attention to all the yapping I did about this book and we often had trouble keeping it in stock or even getting copies from the publisher.  I think I used every source I had at my disposal to keep making it available again.

And that's the end of my year in review at Clarkesworld Books.  I'll be doing a lot of financial stats over the next couple of weeks that won't get posted, but will set the direction for the store in the next year.  Should be interesting to see if my perceptions match reality.

The following is based on 2006 sales data from Clarkesworld Books. All books and magazines were sold online or at conventions. Where possible, I have listed 2005 sales data rankings.

Bestselling Magazines

1 - Fantasy Magazine (-)
2 - Fantasy & Science Fiction (1)
3 - Weird Tales (2)
4 - Asimov's (3)
5 - Analog (4)
6 - Interzone (5)
7 - Subterranean (9)
8 - Cemetery Dance (8)
9 - H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror (7)
10 - Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (-)

Magazine sales included single issue, back issue, and subscription sales, basically anything we received money for.  A subscription counted the same as a single issue.  We take subscriptions for three of the magazines listed (Fantasy, Weird Tales, and Subterranean).

The big surprise this time is probably Fantasy Magazine.  I'll tell you that the difference between 1st and 2nd was in the single digits, so if you're one of those people who thinks I'm crazy for including subscriptions, you can switch the first two and make your own list.  Anyhow, Fantasy was directing people to our site for subscriptions, preorders, covers, for the better part of the year.  It was also one of two magazines that often had multiple copy (of the same issue) sales.  (The other was Interzone.)  These were often friends or family of their contributors.  As it becomes more widely available, I suspect we'll see a drop in our sales of Fantasy Magazine. It should be interesting to see if it can maintain this spot.

There is no need to explain how F&SF ends up where it is.  Weird Tales, however, is #3 largely because of back issue sales. The same can be said of HPL, which barely did anything new this year.

The gap between Asimovs and Analog is closing.  If I map out the trends, Analog may very well overtake Asimovs in the next year.  Our back issue sales for Analog seem to be growing faster.

Where's Realms of Fantasy?  We only started stocking that a few months ago, but I'd be willing to bet that they'll make the list next year.  Same goes for TTA/Black Static if they start publishing again.  2007 will also see the debut of the signed print versions of Clarkesworld Magazine.  Being the publisher of that magazine, I'll be quite disappointed if we don't make the cut. :)

When we did this last year, I noticed that the majority of our magazine sales were back issues.  This continued to be the case again this year.  It was particularly true with the magazines that are typically available in neighborhood bookstores.  There are also a number of international customers that will buy 2-3 months of issues at a time to save money on shipping.


Still to come:
Bestselling Author
Bestselling Books by Title

The following is based on 2006 sales data from Clarkesworld Books. All books and magazines were sold online or at conventions. Where possible, I have listed 2005 sales data rankings.

Percentage of Books Sold by Format

46% - Hardcover
25% - Trade Paperback
23% - Mass Market Paperback
6% - Chapbook

I can't find the exact numbers from last year, but I know that hardcover and chapbook sales increased their percentages. The chapbook number will probably slide back down. I think this was just a blip from a few strong titles.


Bestselling Publisher (including backlist)

1 - TOR (1)
2 - Subterranean Press (5)
3 - Random House (6)
4 - Penguin (3)
5 - PS Publishing (4)
6 - HarperCollins (2)
7 - Leisure Books (7)
8 - Night Shade Books (10)
9 - Prime Books/Wildside (8)
10 - Golden Gryphon (9)

TOR maintains it's top spot. This was pretty much the way it worked all year. The big surprise was Subterranean's leap up and HarperCollins fall. Subterranean has had a pretty solid year. I can only think of a couple of books that didn't sell as well as we had hoped. HarperCollins was a saved from being beaten by Leisure by the sales of just a few titles. Of course, I have to point out that Leisure is only doing this well because of the sales of Brian Keene's books. Without him, they probably wouldn't have made the top 15.

Next time:
Bestselling Magazines
Bestselling Author
Bestselling Books by Title

Books
1 - Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti (Hardcover)
2 - A Soul in a Bottle by Tim Powers (Signed Hardcover)
3 - Carnival by Elizabeth Bear (Paperback)
4 - Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (Signed Numbered Hardcover)
5 - Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher (Paperback)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Realms of Fantasy
3 - Fantasy Magazine
4 - Weird Tales
5 - Asimov's

This week represents a work week one-day shorter than normal.  By mid-week, people stopped the rush to get books for the holidays, so we had a tilt towards the preorders that came in.  Teatro Grottesco had heavy preorders and easily kept Tim Powers from taking what seems like a regular top-spot anytime something new comes out.  Carnival had a lot of Christmas gift orders to keep it sailing smoothly in the top 5.

Nothing too unusual with the magazine sales.  A few big back-issue orders brought Weird Tales back up into the mix and Realms seemed to have a stronger than normal week.  Several magazines sent us new issues that week and I'm still getting those listed now that the store is open again.

 

Books
1 - Carnival by Elizabeth Bear (Paperback)
2 - Empire by Orson Scott Card (Hardcover)
3 - The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross (Signed Hardcover)
4 - The Android's Dream by John Scalzi (Signed Hardcover)
5 - Coyote Frontier by Allen Steele (Paperback)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Asimov's
3 - Fantasy Magazine
4 - Realms of Fantasy
5 - Analog

Continued thanks to everyone participating in our big sale. I'm going through the orders as fast as I can. Several books have gone out of stock, so I'm racing to get those changes on the site too!

Books
1 - The Android's Dream by John Scalzi (Signed Hardcover)
2 - Carnival by Elizabeth Bear (Paperback)
3 - The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross (Signed Hardcover)
4 - Empire by Orson Scott Card (Hardcover)
5 - Reassuring Tales by T.E.D. Klein (Signed Numbered Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
3 - Asimov's
4 - Analog
4 - Fantasy Magazine
5 - Realms of Fantasy

Books
1 - The Android's Dream by John Scalzi (Signed Hardcover)
2 - The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross (Hardcover)
3 - Odyssey by Jack McDevitt (Hardcover)
4 - Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective by George R. R. Martin (Hardcover)
5 - Havoc Swims Jaded by David J. Schow (Signed Numbered Hardcover w/Chapbook)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy Magazine
2 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
3 - Realms of Fantasy
4 - Analog
5 - Asimov's

We were closed a good number of days last week due to the holiday, but the sales maintained pace with a normal week. Not bad considering the holiday season is not typically our best. In fact, the last three years running, our best month for sales has been January. The best I can figure is that's when everyone does their post-holidays "I didn't get what I wanted" shopping.

Books
1 - Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe (Hardcover)
2 - Forest Mage (Soldier Son Trilogy, Book 2) by Robin Hobb (Signed Hardcover)
3 - The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente (Signed Trade Paperback)
4 - Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest (Trade Paperback)
5 - Seeker by Jack McDevitt (Paperback)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy Magazine
2 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
3 - Analog
4 - Asimov's
5 - H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror

A lot of turnover from last week's list. The Orphan's Tales made a strong showing at number three, despite a number of preorders waiting on the signed copies. (Those copies won't count in the bestseller list until they ship.)

I'm willing to bet that Blindsight by Peter Watts would have made the list this week, but as I mentioned before, we sold all our copies. The good news is that it's back in stock! I've been told that this book had an initial print run of about 5000 copies. Do yourself a favor and pick it up before it's gone.

Books
1 - Blindsight by Peter Watts (Hardcover)
2 - Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest (Trade Paperback)
3 - The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin (Signed Hardcover)
4 - Futures Past by Jack Dann (ed.) (Paperback)
5 - Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1) by Lois McMaster Bujold (Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Asimov's
3 - Analog
4 - Interzone
5 - Cemetery Dance

Blindsight sales remain strong and now we've run out of copies. TOR's ordering system shows stock available, but nothing has shipped to us in the last two weeks. I've checked with an alternate distributor and they have been out of stock for almost three weeks with many copies backordered. I've also heard from customers that have been unable to find it in their locals stores. Something tells me the initial print run was too small.

Books
1 - Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest (Trade Paperback)
2 - Blindsight by Peter Watts (Hardcover)
3 - The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin (Signed Hardcover)
4 - Matriarch by Karen Traviss (Paperback)
5 - Eifelheim by Michael Flynn (Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Interzone
3 - Analog
4 - Asimov's
5 - Postscripts

Cherie Priest takes the top spot this week. Haven't read this one yet, but I have been enjoying the her serialized version of The Wreck of the Mary Byrd over on the Subterranean Press website. She also has a forthcoming book called Dreadful Skin coming from Subterranean in early 2007.

Blindsight was a book I knew I'd enjoy well before reading it. I've been a fan of Peter's work for years and had the pleasure of catching a reading from this book at Readercon a few months ago. Glad to see it fairing so well on the list this week.

All in all, a pretty good selection of books in the top 5.

Books
1 - The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin (Signed Hardcover)
2 - The Machine's Child by Kage Baker (Hardcover)
3 - House of Chains (Malazan, Book 4) by Steven Erikson (Hardcover)
4 - Pictures from an Expedition by Alexander C. Irvine (Trade Paperback)
5 - Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert (Signed Numbered Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Interzone
3 - Fantasy Magazine
4 - Analog
5 - Asimov's

This week's numbers include book sales at Albacon. Nothing shipped on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday because of the con. I've been busy this week catching up on all those orders.

Books
1 - The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin (Signed Hardcover)
2 - The Machine's Child by Kage Baker (Hardcover)
3 - House of Chains (Malazan, Book 4) by Steven Erikson (Hardcover)
4 - Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert (Signed Numbered Hardcover)
5 - Horrorween by Al Sarrantonio (Paperback)

Magazines
1 - Interzone
2 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
3 - Asimov's
4 - Analog
5 - Cemetery Dance

Very little change from last week, so I'll just take this opportunity to thank the folks that have been helping us get the word out about Clarkesworld Magazine. I've seen a few reviews now and they've been pretty good. Looks like we're off to a good start.

Books
1 - House of Chains (Malazan, Book 4) by Steven Erikson (Hardcover)
2 - Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert (Signed Numbered Hardcover)
3 - Alabaster by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Signed Numbered Hardcover)
4 - Alabaster by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Hardcover)
5 - Alone on the Darkside : Echoes From Shadows of Horror by John Pelan (Paperback)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Interzone
3 - Fantasy Magazine
4 - Analog
5 - Asimov's

Books
1 - Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert (Signed Numbered Hardcover)
2 - House of Chains (Malazan, Book 4) by Steven Erikson (Hardcover)
3 - Three Days to Never by Tim Powers (Hardcover)
4 - Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer (Hardcover)
5 - The Rutting Season by Brian Keene (Signed Trade Paperback)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Fantasy Magazine
3 - Asimov's
4 - Analog
5 - Interzone

Hunters of Dune is a signed limited of 10,000 copies. To make things interesting they signed 26 copies in red (lettered A-Z) with a personalized message, 74 copies in purple with personalized message, 2900 copies in green ink, and 7000 copies in blue. The first two boxes we opened had blue ink, but the next two were green. I've seen posts on the author's site that these are being distributed randomly... mixed in with unsigned copies. Not sure I buy that since you can order boxes of the signed copies straight from the publisher. All the books in each box are numbered in sequence, so it's quite possible that some lucky bookseller will end up with a box of the rare lettered state. Keep your eyes on EBay to see if I'm right. :)

Books
1 - Phantom by Terry Goodkind (Hardcover)
2 - In the Company of Ogres by A. Lee Martinez (Trade Paperback)
3 - The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde (Signed Hardcover)
4 - Idolon by Mark Budz (Paperback)
5 - Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey (Signed Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Fantasy Magazine
3 - Interzone
4 - Analog
5 - Asimov's

With all the stuff about Clarkesworld Magazine being announced, I completely forgot about the bestseller list. Ok, I remembered it yesterday, but it was my birthday and I was reserving my right to be lazy. :)

Books
1 - The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Signed Hardcover)
2 - The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde (Signed Hardcover)
3 - Phantom by Terry Goodkind (Hardcover)
4 - A Separate War and Other Stories by Joe Haldeman (Hardcover)
5 - Olympos by Dan Simmons (Paperback)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy Magazine
2 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
3 - Interzone
4 - Asimov's
5 - Realms of Fantasy

All the signed copies of Lies of Locke Lamora are sold and finally shipped. Fortunately, Scott has been kind enough to agree to sign a second batch. For the first batch, he put printed a chapter from the next book, signed it, and placed it inside the dustjacket. He won't be doing that with these, but he says he has something interesting planned. By the way, even without all the fun stuff he's doing to our copies, Lies is a very good book.

Books
1 - Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey (Signed Hardcover)
2 - Phantom by Terry Goodkind (Hardcover)
3 - Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 3) by Steven Erikson (Paperback)
4 - Godslayer (The Sundering, Book 2) by Jacqueline Carey (Signed Paperback)
5 - Three Days to Never by Tim Powers (Signed Numbered Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy Magazine
2 - Interzone
3 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
4 - Weird Tales
5 - Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine

Books
1 - Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey (Signed Hardcover)
2 - Phantom by Terry Goodkind (Hardcover)
3 - Three Days to Never by Tim Powers (Signed Numbered Hardcover)
4 - A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison (Signed Paperback)
5 - The Space Opera Renaissance by David G. Hartwell (Hardcover)

Magazines
1 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
2 - Fantasy Magazine
3 - Subterranean Magazine
4 - Weird Tales
5 - Talebones

Kushiel's Scion and Fistful of Charms have been out for a few weeks, but since these copies ere being signed, they've just started shipping last week. Phantom was supposed to be issued signed by the publisher, but (probably due to Terry's health) that edition was cancelled. I had a lot of disappointed customers on that one.

The free fiction on our site seems to be drawing a lot of attention in the first 24 hours. This is definitely something I plan to continue. Next up will be a couple of stories from Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

Glad to have Talebones showing in the magazine list. Good news there is that the subscription drive has been a success and they will continue publishing. Fantasy Magazine slipped to #2 this week, but it stands a good chance to take back that spot next week.