Which King Book Sold The Best?

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Wayoftheredpanda

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May 15, 2018
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Misery or It would be my guess also.
Tommyknockers actually, that was where he peaked, it may seem like the odd book to get that title considering he doesn’t even like it, but name recognition alone boosted those sales. It may have been surpassed by now, but if were limiting it to his peak in the 80’s, it would be TommyKnockers
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
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Tommyknockers actually, that was where he peaked, it may seem like the odd book to get that title considering he doesn’t even like it, but name recognition alone boosted those sales. It may have been surpassed by now, but if were limiting it to his peak in the 80’s, it would be TommyKnockers
The novel It went through at least 6 printings, with an initial first printing of 800,000 copies. Tommyknockers may have been at 1,000,000 but it didn't go through as many printings as It did. Tommyknockers was also the last book in the '4 novels published in 16 months' contract with Viking and it may have suffered from King reader burn-out.
 

Rrty

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Jun 4, 2007
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Since this thread is still a little active, for the heck of it I searched again to see if the answer was out there. It was not. But I happened to come up with this Publishers Weekly page on the bestselling books for 2014, for those who might like to look at it:

The Bestselling Books of 2014

The entire list is interesting, but here are the two entries the board cares about. Revival sold just under 345,000 copies. Mr. Mercedes moved a little over 308,000 copies.

I guess, by the way, contrary to my previous speculation, that it is still possible to sell a million copies of a book. You'll find several examples within this link. (I'd argue, though, that today is still a bit different from the market years ago, and that some of these success stories are uniquely the result of the YA cross-media-promotional phenomenon, as well as authors with outsized platforms for promotion. A pure, original, non-branded author would have a difficult time replicating King's success arc when he was still young in the publishing game. Otherwise, someone like Bentley Little should be selling millions in hardcover...)
 

Wayoftheredpanda

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How sad is this? I recently said to the mechanic working on our vehicle "We stopped at the library on the way here" and one of the customers waiting said "That's something you don't hear much any more!"
If you really believe most of the population doesn’t read books anymore, then how would you explain why book publishers and authors aren’t out of business because of lack of sales? If so little people read, then how come so many book-related businesses are still around?
 

Neesy

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May 24, 2012
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If you really believe most of the population doesn’t read books anymore, then how would you explain why book publishers and authors aren’t out of business because of lack of sales? If so little people read, then how come so many book-related businesses are still around?
Nobody said that MOST of the population doesn't read (well - at least I did not)

I just wonder what the future holds for the next generation coming - I certainly hope that books and libraries do not die out - that would be very sad.
 

Wayoftheredpanda

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Nobody said that MOST of the population doesn't read (well - at least I did not)

I just wonder what the future holds for the next generation coming - I certainly hope that books and libraries do not die out - that would be very sad.
It’s an implied thing, if books were really dying out there wouldn’t be so many new books releasing, digital stores for them, etc.
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
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Spokane, WA
If you really believe most of the population doesn’t read books anymore, then how would you explain why book publishers and authors aren’t out of business because of lack of sales? If so little people read, then how come so many book-related businesses are still around?
I said that most of the population doesn't read anymore. Please read post #37 from RichardX. Based on the 300,000,000+ population of the US, then book sales fall short and keep falling short in ratio of the population. A lot of people just don't have the time to sit and read books anymore. It's also true of watching a movie in the theater- ticket sales have dwindled each year now for at least a decade compared to the previous ration of viewing and population growth. It's harder than ever to break into the publishing world (I'm not talking about the self publishing world of Amazon where a book is published-on-demand). There are so many factors involved in getting a first novel published such as: does it have 'legs' (meaning will it sell a gazillion copies like The Davinci Code did), is it written with a sequel, trilogy or even a continuing series in mind (ala Game Of Thrones), will the camera 'love' the author if we send them out into the world to promote this book(s), etc. Remember when there was a B. Dalton on every corner or a Waldens Books? They're kaput. Yes, the publishing industry is hurting, you just might not be seeing it from your point of view.
 

Wayoftheredpanda

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May 15, 2018
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I said that most of the population doesn't read anymore. Please read post #37 from RichardX. Based on the 300,000,000+ population of the US, then book sales fall short and keep falling short in ratio of the population. A lot of people just don't have the time to sit and read books anymore. It's also true of watching a movie in the theater- ticket sales have dwindled each year now for at least a decade compared to the previous ration of viewing and population growth. It's harder than ever to break into the publishing world (I'm not talking about the self publishing world of Amazon where a book is published-on-demand). There are so many factors involved in getting a first novel published such as: does it have 'legs' (meaning will it sell a gazillion copies like The Davinci Code did), is it written with a sequel, trilogy or even a continuing series in mind (ala Game Of Thrones), will the camera 'love' the author if we send them out into the world to promote this book(s), etc. Remember when there was a B. Dalton on every corner or a Waldens Books? They're kaput. Yes, the publishing industry is hurting, you just might not be seeing it from your point of view.
Id argue that it’s easier than ever now to publish, a lot of younger aspiring authors tend to use YouTube or other social media’s for advertising to get a demand for the book long before sent to a publisher.
 

Blake

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Feb 18, 2013
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How sad is this? I recently said to the mechanic working on our vehicle "We stopped at the library on the way here" and one of the customers waiting said "That's something you don't hear much any more!"
I'd say from my own experience that 60% of people going in borrowing books are over 50. Younger people might be downloading e-books from the library. I wouldn't be surprised within the next 20 years here in Newcastle that physical libraries won't be around just like bank branches won't be around. They reckon cash will disappear within the next 15 years.
 

Tery

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Apr 12, 2006
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I'd say from my own experience that 60% of people going in borrowing books are over 50. Younger people might be downloading e-books from the library. I wouldn't be surprised within the next 20 years here in Newcastle that physical libraries won't be around just like bank branches won't be around. They reckon cash will disappear within the next 15 years.
Man, I feel so OLD! :(
 

Wayoftheredpanda

Flaming Wonder Telepath
May 15, 2018
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I'd say from my own experience that 60% of people going in borrowing books are over 50. Younger people might be downloading e-books from the library. I wouldn't be surprised within the next 20 years here in Newcastle that physical libraries won't be around just like bank branches won't be around. They reckon cash will disappear within the next 15 years.
It seems there are quite a lot of digital-only books. I imagine they're easier to publish, and easy for one shot writers hoping to make a little cash off of the one story they wrote. Also tons of free story publishing sites eith certain themes, like creepypasta (Which is full of garbage written by people who think shock-value=horror and bad writing in general, there are good stories there if you look hard enough. Sadly most of the popular ones are absolute trash that are for some reason worshipped by teenage girls on the Internet) or the SCP wiki (most articles there are at least decent and some are good to great horror reading, basically the premise is a government agency tasked with imprissoning anomalous objects and creatures, and each article is field report on a certain contained anomaly.). So I'd still say there's a lot of people interested in writing (even if they have no idea how to spell or write coherent sentences/plot)