January 4, 2024, 10:32am
Another year has come and gone, full of best books—and also bestsellers. As it turns out, just 23 percent of the bestselling books of 2023 were actually published in 2023—which is only a slightly smaller share than last year. Backlist books typically dominate the overall bestseller list, thanks to sales of oft-assigned, always-popular classics and beloved children’s books (Sandra Boynton and Eric Carle 4ever), as well as those spurred by film adaptations or other major cultural events.
Just like last year, Colleen Hoover dominated the overall bestseller list in 2023—but mostly for her backlist books, since she only (only) published three new books in 2023, as compiled by Publishers Lunch. (Publishers Lunch counts a 17 books by Hoover in the overall top 200, which is, ahem, 8.5 percent.) Sarah J. Maas had 6 titles on the overall list, Ana Huang and Dav Pilkey had 5 each, and Emily Henry had 4. Hey, people know what they like!
So without any further ado, here are the bestselling books of 2023 that were published in 2023, per Publishers Lunch. (NB: the number in parentheses is the book’s place on the overall list of bestsellers.) There isn’t anything overly surprising here, but it’s fun to see that, unlike last year, a work of literary fiction made the list: Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water, which also happens to be one of only two books on the below list to also appear on our compendium of the critics’ favorite books of the year. (The other one is Britney’s, of course.)
The list:
1. (3.) Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex, Spare (Random House, Jan. 10)
2. (4.) Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing (Red Tower, May 2)
3. (6.) Dav Pilkey, Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #11) (Graphix, Mar. 28)
4. (8.) Rebecca Yarros, Iron Flame (Red Tower, Nov. 7)
5. (10.) Britney Spears, The Woman In Me (Gallery, Oct. 24)
6. (13.) Hannah Grace, Icebreaker (Atria, Feb. 27)
7. (15.) Jeff Kinney, No Brainer (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 18) (Abrams, Oct. 24)
8. (21.) Wendy Loggia, Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography (Golden Books, May 2)
9. (23.) Emily Henry, Happy Place (Berkley, Apr. 25)
10. (26.) Colleen Hoover, Heart Bones (Atria, Jan. 31)
11. (29.) Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher, Never Never (Canary Street , Feb. 28)
12. (31.) Colleen Hoover, Too Late: Definitive Edition (Grand Central, Jun. 27)
13. (34.) Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being (Penguin Press, Jan. 17)
14. (38.) Peter Attia, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity (Harmony, Mar. 28)
15. (39.) David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (Doubleday, Apr. 18)
16. (41.) John Grisham, The Exchange: After the Firm (Doubleday, Oct. 17)
17. (46.) Stephen King, Holly (Scribner, Sep. 5)
18. (52.) Lucy Score, Things We Hide from the Light, (Bloom, Feb. 21)
19. (54.) Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water, (Grove, May 2)
20.(60.) Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods (Hyperion, Sep. 26)