What People Want to Read, III

The list of last year's most popular authors is available on the website. The 100 authors on the list, taken together, by themselves constituted 12% of all circulation. The dozen names at the top of the list (sorted to show newest titles first):

Nora Roberts
Tony Hillerman
Alexander McCall Smith
Robert B. Parker
John Grisham
Janet Evanovich
James Patterson
Stan and Jan Berenstain
Dr. Seuss
J. K. Rowling
Mary Pope Osborne
Marc Tolon Brown

In years past the children's authors have been mixed in at the top, but this year the top seven are all authors for adults, and the next five for children. There is a brief discussion at the bottom of the list. If you are at all interested in how publishers think about popular fiction and what is expected of top-selling authors, you might like to read Tess Gerritsen's blog piece, Cranking Them Out.

The 2005 Most Popular Non-Fiction Titles list for 2005 is not ready yet, but the topmost title is just too interesting not to mention: it's Jared Diamond's, Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed.