Film people are often shocked by how few copies most books sell. When you compare book sales to films like Avatar which grossed 2.92 billion, novel profits probably seem like pocket change.
But certain books have enjoyed extremely impressive sales, making their authors millionaires several times over. Recently, I was listening to the Book Riot podcast, and they were discussing Amazon’s fifty top-selling books of all time. Since I cover fiction, I thought it would be interesting to see what the novels had in common.
A few things were wonky about the list. Where was DaVinci Code? It sold 80 million copies, easily beating Water for Elephants, which was included , and sold much less. (10 million copies).
But I won’t be splitting 70 million hairs; all of the books sold on the list were outstanding success stories.