How well do Star Wars books sell?

Star Wars novels have been around for over a decade, and have variegated over time in popularity at various points. So overall, how many units per book do they actually sell do you think, inside and outside America?

Hundreds of thousands of copies per book? It's certainly the most known series around, but is it the best? Have a say.

 

I read on this site that DW was number five on the 'wall street journal' best sellers list. Not sure how comprehensive that is, but it sounds pretty good!

 

If they were cheaper here in Australia, more people would buy them. I want DW, but I can't afford it.

 

Fifth, huh? I wonder how many units that is.

 

Yes, Star Wars books typically sell extremely well.

Attack of the Clones #1

And a really good article having a number of actual sales figures:

"Ballantine is shipping 800,000 hardcovers of his novelization of Episode II. "Bottom line," said Kuo-yo Liang, Ballantine's director of licensing, "[no other novelization] compares to this printing in hardcover. Period."

TPM - 1.3M!?! Total sales
AotC - 800k!?! first-printing
AotC Comic - 150k first-printing
DK's reference - 300k first-printings

NJO - all hardcovers have sold over 100k hardcover, and average 300k mass market.

Some impressive numbers put up by Star Wars books.

 

They definitely sell well for the most part. The Approaching Storm and Destiny's Way were both Top 5 on the New York Times Bestellers List, two recent examples of the continued popularity of these books over the years.

 

Star Wars books sell incredibly well. Michael Stackpole said on his site that his SW books sold over 100000 copies, while his others sold less.

Are they the best? No. They are very good books, but not exceptional or anything. (There are some exceptions) They make the best seller lists, and do very well, but you can have crappy books make those lists as well.

 

Star Wars Episode I Cross-sections (DK) has sold 1.1M!?!

Star Wars Storybook has sold about 780,000 copies.

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter - over 200,000

Balance Point - 200,000 first-printing

#4 Bestseller, Agents of Chaos I - 275,000 first-printing.

Rogue Planet - "A brand-name newcomer--Star Wars: Rogue Planet by Greg Bear from Del Rey/LucasBooks--continues to please and after one week on sale, went back to press for a second printing, bringing the total in print to 193,000. The author is finishing an eight-city tour."

Star Wars: Episode 1, the Making of the Phantom Menace. Laurent Bouzereau. Orig. Lucas/Del Rey (333,210)

Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace: Illustrated Screenplay. George Lucas. Orig. Del Rey (167,503)

Star Wars: Essential Guide to Droids. Daniel Wallace. Orig. Del Rey (89,030)

The Joys of Bestsellerdom
"These mergers have -- big surprise -- had little effect on the popularity of science fiction and fantasy in the bookstores. Science fiction and fantasy made more appearances on major bestseller lists around the country in 1999 than at any time since the early 1980s -- perhaps more than ever before. Del Rey rode the publicity wave surrounding Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace to the #1 spot on the New York Times list with its novelization of the film, written by bestselling fantasy author Terry Brooks. "When you look back at the year-that-was, 1999, two series dominated," says Liang at Del Rey. "Harry Potter and Star Wars -- nothing else came close." Del Rey published another Star Wars novel, Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore, to smaller (though still quite significant) success in October, and has a new one scheduled for May: Rogue Planet, by award-winning novelist Greg Bear, is the first spinoff based on The Phantom Menace, set three years after the film. "Obviously," says Liang, "we're very excited about it."

Star Wars minibooks - Star Wars Episode 1: Who's Who and Star Wars Episode 1: What's What. Copies in print of the two books combined total more than one million.

 

If Starwars books didnt sell well they wouldnt still be writing them.

 

Just clarifying one of Genghis' numbers: are the 300,000 NJO mass market paperbacks printed or sold figures?

Those above stats are certainly impressive. On a related note, it would be interesting to see just how much of those printed copies are eventually sold. For that matter, how is it decided how many first-run copies to produce?

And what has been the hight-est selling SW novel yet?

 

And what has been the hight-est selling SW novel yet?

I am totally guessing here, that it would be Heir to the Empire.

 

Man, I work in a Barnes and Noble, and the books fly off the shelf!! Not just the new ones, but every freakin' one of them!! It is unbelieveable.

 

Actually, I wonder what the lowest selling SW book novel in unit terms.

 

Excellence...
"Just clarifying one of Genghis' numbers: are the 300,000 NJO mass market paperbacks printed or sold figures?"

I cannot tell you with 100% certainty, but it's my experience that when PW means printed, they say "printed," and when they mean sold, as in actual sell-through, they say "sold." They said "sold" with respect to the average mass market paperback numbers for the hardcovers.

"Those above stats are certainly impressive. On a related note, it would be interesting to see just how much of those printed copies are eventually sold. For that matter, how is it decided how many first-run copies to produce?"

Two things. You can read between the lines and see that in a few cases they refer to the same books in different articles at different times. An early mention gets a "XXXX printed," and a later one gets "XXXX sold." So, in those cases, it's obvious that all of the current copies printed have been sold. Star Wars books go on to multiple printings, it's not a big assumption to make that all of the above printed copies are sold.

As for judging demand, I can only discuss AotC specifically. The first-printing numbers for it were based on the hugesly successful TPM. At the time it was published, I believe TPM had the best Star Wars release. It had a 750,000 copy first-printing, which as I understand went like wildfire. In the three years, it's gone to more than double those sales to 1.3+M copies sold.

"And what has been the hight-est selling SW novel yet?"

The main contenders would be either Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker or Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Although it could be one of the other OT novellizations. Collectively, there's 13M copies of Star Wars movie novellizations that have been sold. Take out AotC 800K and TPM's 1.3M and you have the OT doing an average of close to 4M. However, it's probably skewed towards ANH by a large margin.