I was curious if anyone had information as to how many copies of OSC's books have been printed/sold? I would be particularly interested in Ender's Game (or whatever his best-selling book is, but I would find it hard to believe anything else would have sold more).
On a side note, I really wish sales of things like books, video games, and DVDs were as well-covered as film box office. I mean, we know what is the best selling book, but rarely how many copies it actually sold.
Thanks!
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
It's almost impossible to come to anything like an exact number, between various editions, translations, etc. And do we count remainders? We have no way of knowing how many of those sell to READERS, only how many were bought by bookstores to sell at their own risk. And what about those illegal sales of stolen advance review copies offered on EBay? <grin>
On a personal level, of course, those exact figures would provide people with a way of estimating my gross income. And I'd really not want to get into the business of posting, in effect, my income here online.
Let's just say that worldwide, Ender's Game is probably well into the millions of copies sold, since its first publication twenty years ago. And everything else is ... less than that.
[ April 25, 2005, 03:25 AM: Message edited by: Orson Scott Card ]
Posted by JakeW (Member # 7888) on :
I must say its very cool that you actually post here, its wonderful for an author to actually interact with his/her fans. Thank you.
And thank you for answering my question, or at least trying to Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
So it’s good when people like me buy those proofs as a collectors item and then also buy the hardback too? Fun! Glad to be of service.
So there isn’t some number out there somewhere? If McDonald’s can have its billions served can’t we have the millions of reads number? That would be a neat stat to have on the website. Total OSC books sold.
But anyway…. How high did SOTG get on the bestseller list? If they wouldn’t have sold it early how high did it look like it would have gone?
Do you care about such things? I assume it helps of course for the next book and the paperback of course.
Posted by trance (Member # 6623) on :
Ender's Game Over 6.5 Billion Read
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Do we count eachCOPY or each PERSON or each READING? I think I should get credit for every TIME someone reads Ender's Game, even if it's the same person ten times, or ten people reading the same copy.
Posted by JakeW (Member # 7888) on :
Don't forget audiobooks! I got into your books about a month ago with Ender's Game through Audible. It was only my second audio book, but I must say the performances on Ender's Game are amazing - the group that did the book is excellent. (BTW, after I listened to Ender's Game I bought all the Ender books... I am currently on Shadow Puppets. I had never gotten into sci-fi, but you did it as effectively as Rowling got me into fantasy with HP - thanks)
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
quote:But anyway…. How high did SOTG get on the bestseller list? If they wouldn’t have sold it early how high did it look like it would have gone?
You know, I made a whole thread about how I was tracking SotG's progress on the bestsellers lists and nobody cared . Anyway, the highest I ever saw it ranked was 8th on the New York Times list. It ranked on a number of other major lists including the Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly, and remained in the top 15 or 20 for at least a month after its release. I don't know what any of that really means in terms of the success of the book, but I assume it's pretty good. Maybe the paperback edition will identify it as a New York Times bestseller or something.
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. Anyway, the highest I ever saw it ranked was 8th on the New York Times list. It ranked on a number of other major lists including the Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly, and remained in the top 15 or 20 for at least a month after its release. I don't know what any of that really means in terms of the success of the book, but I assume it's pretty good. Maybe the paperback edition will identify it as a New York Times bestseller or something.