Best Ebook Publishers in 2013 — Hachette, Penguin Random House on Top of Publisher Power Rankings

There wouldn't be a lot of point in the big however-many-it-is if they couldn't top the rankings.

Self-published is up there. Of course, there were a hell of a lot of SP titles last year.

I wonder if the Harlequin is Harlequin proper, or Carina, or a blend of the two? Does anyone know if Carina's had best-sellers?

Captcha said:

Self-published is up there. Of course, there were a hell of a lot of SP titles last year.

I wonder if the Harlequin is Harlequin proper, or Carina, or a blend of the two? Does anyone know if Carina's had best-sellers?

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I read on their site (or blog) about a month ago that they had a national bestseller. I don't know the number or the title off the top of my head.

Captcha said:

Self-published is up there. Of course, there were a hell of a lot of SP titles last year.

I wonder if the Harlequin is Harlequin proper, or Carina, or a blend of the two? Does anyone know if Carina's had best-sellers?

Click to expand...

I know Shannon Stacey hit the NYT best seller list and I know one M/M romance is a best seller on Amazon right now.

Who else is surprised that "self-published" comes higher than HarperCollins (and so many others) on that list?

I know, I know ... it's not exactly comparing like with like ...

alexaherself said:

Who else is surprised that "self-published" comes higher than HarperCollins (and so many others) on that list?

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I assume "self-published" is 99 different people, right? Yes, a lot of grains of sand can weigh the same as a larger rock. And no, I'm not surprised there are great self-published books that sold well.

(And wow, the sock puppet definitely had a favorite topic, eh? Edit: Er, I guess that fact's not so apparent since the other thread got deleted...)

jjdebenedictis said:

I assume "self-published" is 99 different people, right?

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I was thinking maybe about 97 people, allowing for a couple possibly to have two each? But yes, different people, hence not altogether comparing like with like (you can't, really, if you're including "self-published"?).

jjdebenedictis said:

wow, the sock puppet definitely had a favorite topic, eh?

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Wow - isn't 2 posts/threads rather a small sample-size from which to be drawing such conclusions?

Captcha said:

I wonder if the Harlequin is Harlequin proper, or Carina, or a blend of the two? Does anyone know if Carina's had best-sellers?

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I'd expect they'd list any from Carina separately, although I can't be sure if they have. Carina and Harlequin are run as separate businesses, aren't they?

alexaherself said:

Who else is surprised that "self-published" comes higher than HarperCollins (and so many others) on that list?

I know, I know ... it's not exactly comparing like with like ...

Click to expand...

If the list had been compiled with all trade-published best-sellers added together, and then all self-published best-sellers added together, it would make sense.

As it is, it seems that the people behind the list either don't understand how statistics work, or they were determined to make a specific point no matter what.

Old Hack said:

I'd expect they'd list any from Carina separately, although I can't be sure if they have. Carina and Harlequin are run as separate businesses, aren't they?

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Carina royalty cheques come in a Harlequin envelope, so they're not COMPLETELY separate... I don't know quite where the line is drawn.

I'm glad so many self-published books are best selling!

Pushingfordream said:

I'm glad so many self-published books are best selling!

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Why are you specifically glad about self-published books hitting the best-seller lists?

I'll put it another way: what would you conclude if I were to say, "I'm glad so many trade-published books are best selling!"?

(I know you're not asking me but) I suspect that generally people feel, on some level, that the fact that some self-published books undeniably become best-sellers "gives them more chance".

It may sometimes be missing the point that most (clearly not all) self-published books that become best-sellers probably have to be good enough to have been able to find a traditional publisher anyway, had their authors chosen that route instead. But clearly many people feel that (regardless of the extent to which the feeling might actually be a logical one)?

The realities are surely that ...

(i) some types of books ("well-defined sub-genres, popular with Kindle readers, shorter lengths"?) are far better suited to self-publication than others, and ...

(ii) most self-published books actually had no chance at all of being traditionally published and in any case make very few sales indeed?

alexaherself said:

Wow - isn't 2 posts/threads rather a small sample-size from which to be drawing such conclusions?

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You got in there before I edited my post; sorry. The sock had started another thread recently, but it is now goooooone.