According to Bookscan numbers, the bestselling SFF debut in the USA was Russell Kirkpatrick's Across the Face of the World (Canada, USA, Europe). It was followed by Brent Weeks' The Way of Shadows (Canada, USA, Europe).
In the UK, the bestselling SFF debut turned out to be Brent Weeks' The Way of Shadows. Orbit came out on top on both sides of the pond!
Congrats to both winners!:-)
10 commentaires:
very deserved by Weeks, his serie is a lot of fun.
So why have we never heard before of the 'bestselling debut' in the USA? Something strange, there. And judging from Amazon, a few people regret the purchase.
I though Across the Face of the World debuted in 2004.
Sorry that I go out of topic, Pat, but I can´t find when "The judging eye" will be released. No one seems to know at my local bookstore. You know any street date? I thought it was going to be today, but they still haven´t got the book.
Yeah didn't that Kirkpatrick book come out like 4 or 5 years ago and now there are 4 or 5 other books in the series out?
Or is this another of those instances where North America is once again about a decade behind the rest of the world (in every which way). :-P
Across the Face of the World came out in 2004 in New Zealand and in 2006, IIRC, in the UK. It's US debut was in 2008.
I find it hard to believe it was the biggest-selling debut fantasy though. Although a tribute to the splash Orbit USA has made since landing in the US (nabbing the two slots that normally would go to Tor, or possibly DAW or Del Rey in just their second year of operation), it's really not a very good book. The author clearly spent way, way more time on the dozens of maps in the front of the book than the actual writing.
Yeah, Across the Face of the World was a bit rough. Each book in the trilogy did get better (enough to make my enjoy reading it). The first book in his new trilogy, though, is a big step forward so far. On the blog i wrote up some thoughts on the first 150 pages. If you gave up on Russell after his first book, you might actually find something to like in the 2nd trilogy (assuming the upward trend in writing quality continues).
Its the cover art.
I could be wrong about this, but I believe that Orbit has based their figures primarily on BookScan results. BookScan covers about 60% of US book sales. So whilst the figures are the best available (Orbit US also have their own confidential sales figures, but they don't have access to Tor or DAW or Bantam's figures) and Orbit can certainly make the claim they've made with reasonable authority, that percentage should be borne in mind.
I don't believe that Orbit would have issued a press release if they weren't certain of their numbers...
Like it or not, these two debuts are more than likely the bestselling SFF debuts on both sides of the Atlantic.
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