Book Charts and Breaches

Ah, my Minions...

As some of you are aware, KOTW was released early in some parts of the UK. Mistakes were made, I am told, and by the time news got out, it was already too late to do anything. Our official release date had been breached.

I was told all about it. I shrugged. Hey. It happens.

While this tends to mean very little for the overall sales of the book- the same amount of people are going to buy it, after all- it CAN mean that a new book doesn't get to rise as high in the book charts as it otherwise would have, and so doesn't get discussed in the media, and so more people aren't made aware of it...

For example, if a thousand people intend to buy a book the first week it's out, then a thousand sales will move it to a certain spot in the chart. But if five hundred of those people manage to buy the book a week EARLIER, then those sales are spread out over two weeks, and so it doesn't reach as high.

A breached release date can mean the difference between a best-selling book and a NUMBER ONE best-selling book, which is what all publishers are looking for.

Me personally? I'm not OVERLY bothered. Death Bringer was a number one bestseller last year in the UK and Ireland, and that's enough for me. Like I said, I wasn't too fussed at the idea that a few thousand books has been sold before the release date. So what if I didn't reach number one twice in a row? Did I really care? Nope, I didn't.

Which doesn't mean I wasn't utterly delighted by the news today that DESPITE a breached release date, KOTW is now the number one book for young adults in the UK- so thank you, Minions! (I haven't been told how we're doing in Ireland yet, so I'll hold off my extra-wide grin for THAT moment...)

The reader reaction to KOTW has been wonderful. I know a lot of you were stunned by certain events- of which you are free to talk about in the Spoiler Zone post below- and I know some of you would have quite liked to throttle me upon closing the book, so I want to thank you for investing so much of your faith and emotion in these characters. All I can say is: prepare yourself. You have, I assure you, seen NOTHING yet.

And speaking of the final installments, here's a link to a short thingy I wrote for the Tesco website...

http://booksblog.tesco.com