Analyzing 2012′s Bestselling Books and Ebooks in the US and UK

By Edward Nawotka

Trade magazines Publishers Weekly and The Bookseller have put out new lists compiling the bestselling books of 2012. No surprise, but E.L. James and Suzanne Collins dominate in a number of categories.

As PW notes in its analysis for the United States: “Half of the top 20 bestselling books of 2012 in print were either Fifty Shades titles or Hunger Games titles, and only one book not written by E.L. James or Suzanne Collins — Jeff Kinney’s latest Wimpy Kid title — cracked the one-million-copies-sold mark for the year, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks 75%-80% of print sales.”

PW’s list is broken down into Nielsen BookScan, Amazon Kindle and Amazon Print. You can see it and their analysis here.

In the UK, The Bookseller has a comprehensive look at ebook sales vs. print sales for the UK, for the first time, and they find “a wide variance.” You can read it here — alas, it requires a subscription.