STATUS: I’ve got a holiday party to attend tonight.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? SNOW by Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Danny Kaye
Looking at the blog entry from June 2, 2010 was a nice reminder that I might want to check in on the titles editors spotlighted at the YA buzz panel at Book Expo and see how they are doing.
Here’s the original list for reference.
PLAIN KATE by Erin Bow—Fantasy
INFINITE DAYS by Rebecca Maizel—Vampire/Paranormal
MATCHED by Ally Condie—Dystopian
FIRELIGHT by Sophie Jordan—Dragon/Paranormal
THE DUFF by Kody Keplinger—Contemporary YA
Well, I can tell you right now that Matched is doing the best out of the gate. In fact, PW just had an article on what an auspicious debut it is. A quick look at Bookscan shows an excellent sales record for the first full week out.
Because of agreement with Bookscan, I can’t list actual numbers but let’s just say if a debut YA novel comes out of the gate over 3000 copies strong, it’s doing really well. And this title is definitely above that. It also hit the NYT list this week coming in at #5.
Crazy sales always confirm that a title was buzz worthy.
In a quick look at the other four titles, all of which were released in August and September of this year, they have, in general, what I would call normal-to-above-average sales out of the gate for young adult titles. FIRELIGHT and INFINITE DAYS having higher sales than the other two, and I think that attests to the paranormal genre holding strong in the young adult market.
From this Buzz panel, at least right now, it looks like Matched wins hands-down as the “break-out” book.
Tags: Book Expo, young adult
I’m dying to read MATCHED, and now I probably need to add the others to my list, because I looooooved THE DUFF.
You know, I glanced at that title and realized I had actually just looked at it in the bookstore the other day, read the back and everything…I had no idea it was doing this well! (Personally, I thought it seemed like an intresting idea but had expected it to be…not fantastic, as lots of good ideas seemed to have been screwed up in the last little while I’ve been thinking about books I’ve read…)
MATCHED has been on my Christmas list for a few months – I must not be the only one:)
Honestly, though, if a publisher spends THAT much money on a debut, I’d sure hope it sells well.
All the buzz about the YA genre makes me wonder about the romance genre, particularly in light of AAR’s Top 100 Romances list for 2010. The list continues to be dominated by historical romance despite so many saying that paranormal romance is hot! What do you foresee occurring within the genre–and historical romance in particular?
I’ve been looking forward to all of these too! Glad to see I’m apparently not the only one. It’s nice to see someone else sees that paranormal is still trending…
Just read Matched a few days ago and I absolutely loved it. <3
Out of these five, I’ve only read PLAIN KATE (although the others are on my list), and it was FANTASTIC. So refreshing.
So, if you DID list actual numbers, Kristin, would Bookscan reach into your brain and take them back? Oh, wait. I’m thinking of Amazon and the Kindle…
Matched has the advantage of appealing to many age groups. It includes characters on the cusp of adulthood without content that would be too mature for junior high students. As a junior high librarian, it was an easy choice for me to buy it for my students.
A book like The Duff, though it sounds original and interesting, is a more difficult choice for school librarians to justify due to the mature content.
YA authors should be true to their writing vision, but keep in mind that certain choices will narrow the reading audience considerably.
PLAIN KATE is such a wonderful book! Such a shame that there aren’t more people out there buying it… it’s my fave book of the year!
I totally have to comment! I LOVED Infinite Days. I adored Firelight and just bought Matched!
I’ll be researching Plain Kate and The Duff, since you have them listed 🙂
Many Thanks!