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09/07/2010 (5:25 pm)

Books with consistantly strong sales, not faddish books. Best answer on the web

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  • I am looking for books with consistantly strong sales over the years, not faddish bestsellers. For Example, the "Chicago Manual of Style" is a great bestseller because every copywrighter must have a copy; the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a great bestseller because every mental health professional needs a copy. The Publication Manual of the APA is a great bestseller. These books will always sell well. This is what I am looking for. Consistant, non-faddish bestsellers is what I am looking for. I don't need sales numbers, just a general list. Academic books are best. I understand that there are some children's books that are great non-faddish bestsellers - I don't need any children's books. Thank you for your time.


  • A list of non-fiction books that just keep selling year after year.

    As I am just a commentator and not a paid researcher, this list is not 40 books long nor have I checked to see if there are expensive editions of these books available, but I do give you some lists of book lists you can go to.
    I'm very confused by your remark that the DSM is a great bestseller. That is actually why I did not spend more time researching an answer for you as I am not quite sure of your definition of a "bestseller".
    If I were to give you a list of the books that sell as FEW copies of the DSM each year it would run to the tens of thousands. Indeed, it is a good bet that more hardcover copies of The Christmas Carol by Dickens sell each year than the DSM. Actually, the books that, as far as I can tell, best meet your definition of consistent "best seller" would be dictionaries and reference books for high school and college students. Hence, my confusion as you are not asking for a list of such books.
    However, of the following lists, the first might prove to be the most useful for you: it is the list of the 100 books in the most libraries in the United States
    http://libraryspot.com/lists/listoclc.htm

    The 100 best non-fiction books of the 20th Century
    http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnonfiction.html

    Publisher's Week Lists of Best Sellers for the entire 20th Century
    http://www.caderbooks.com/bestintro.html


    Without knowing your target audience, I'm going to take a wild guess and pick books for someone who has been asked to setup a small book display in a business hotel lobby so passerbys/guests who have nothing to read may then buy one of these expensive? hardcover books.
    If this is an incorrect target audience, you need to let the researchers know. For example, books selected for a hospital lobby display case would differ significantly as I would select far more fiction titles and lighter reading.
    I just couldn't resist 1 children's book that adults love to buy (see last book).
    Note, most of the same diet books show up on best seller lists across multiple decades.
    Dieting and Cooking

    Atkins for Life, Atkins, Robert
    Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book
    Weight Watchers 365-Day Menu Cookbook
    Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker Weight Watchers Fast and Fabulous Cookbook

    Classics

    The Art of War by Sun-Tzu, et al (there are so many different version of this book, I'm sure you can find an expensive illustrated edition.)
    The Joy of Sex, Alex Comfort

    Reference

    The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr., 3rd ed.
    The Chicago Manual of Style,
    Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV, 4th ed. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, by Joseph Gibaldi

    Business

    THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE by Stephen R. Covey
    THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER by Kenneth Blanchard, PhD, and Spencer Johnson, M.D. GETTING TO YES by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton (Penguin The Third Wave, by Alvin Toffler

    Children's Book

    The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay (Houghton Mifflin)

    Hope this free comment provides you with some useful pointers.


  • I couldn't stay away from this question, because you hit on a topic that has interested me for years. What books sell well every year (called evergreens in the book publishing business)?
    So I went ahead and did some more research on this topic and have listed some 60 (44 +16) books that sell well from year to year. Most of them are in the top 2000 best selling books over the past decade. I've left out diet books, management books, most genre books.
    I've prefaced books I know are available in hard cover with an asterisk and the more expensive books with two asterisks. However, I suspect that most of them are available in hard cover.


    SPIRITUAL/RELIGON

    *Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality by Ronald Rolheiser The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis
    *When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner
    *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
    *The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle *The Circle: How the Power of a Single Wish Can Change Your Life by Laura Day Alcoholics Anonymous

    REFERENCE

    **The Social Work Dictionary by Robert Barker
    **The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
    **The Chicago Manual of Style
    **The National Geographic Atlas of the World
    **The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers ed Trevor Cole **The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants ed Christopher Brickell **Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guideline
    *Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
    *Elements of Style by Strunk and White
    **Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
    *Robert's Rules of Order
    CLIFF NOTES AP Biology (Cliff Notes for high schoolers always sell well)
    GIFT BOOKS

    **Ansel Adams Classic Images Vol 1 by James Alinder
    **Georgia O'Keefe One Hundred Flowers ed. by Nicholas Calloway
    *Sensational Bouquets by Christian Tortu: by Christian Tortu
    *Through the Lens: National Geographics Greatest Photographs
    ed. Leah Bendavid-Val

    HISTORY/SOCIOLOGY

    *The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

    *Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and Its Lessons for Global Power by Niall Ferguson
    *How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe by Thomas Cahill
    Confederate Women by Bell Irvin Wiley

    Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
    Guns, Germs, and Steel` by Jared Diamond
    The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman

    Night by Elie Wiesel

    *Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

    *`Prince by Machiavelli
    *Free to Choose by Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman
    *Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

    MISC.

    *New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

    *Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques by Tracy DiSabato-Aust
    *Siddartha by Hermann Hesse
    *Mythology by Edith Hamilton
    *Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
    *Once and Future King by T.H. White
    *Dune by Frank Herbert (Science Fiction)
    *Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Science Fiction)
    **The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien (Fantasy)


    MOST POPULAR LITERATURE

    I also give you a short list of the "real" evergreens - even though they are not high-priced books they have sold well for decades and most are in the top 500. I suspect because they are all on high-school reading lists. Most should be available in hard cover as well.
    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
    Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
    Great Gatsby` by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    1984 by George Orwell
    Lord of the Flies by William Golding
    Animal Farm by George Orwell
    All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
    The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
    The Autobiography of Malcom X by Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
    Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
    Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
    East of Eden by John Steinbeck
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
    The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
    Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
    Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen


  • When I say "consistantly strong sales over the years" I mean over the past 5-10 years. I am looking for books that are on .
    I want books like "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" and "Publication Manual of the APA" which have strong sales today and will have strong sales at a similar level 2 years from now.


  • How big of a list did you want?

    You mention that you don't want children's books. Is everything else fair game? Cookbooks? Travel guides? Popular fiction with consistently strong sales (e.g., Stephen King)?


  • Size of List: The best you can do. 40 at least.

    Type of Books: Anything will do as long as we are not talking about low priced books like children's books or mass market paperbacks like Michael Crichton. I'm trying to stay away from the low priced books. Travel guides are OK, cookbooks OK. Academic/professional books are best. Books with consistantly good sales and preferably higher price range.


  • With respect, you seem to have a curious attitude towards books. First, I'm surprised you should provide such curious examples of consistent best sellers - I would have expected you to mention the real blockbusters like the Bible, Works of Shakespeare, and classics like Tolstoy's War & Peace, Dickens' David Copperfield, or Melville's Moby Dick. Second, books like that, which are out of are published in a multitude of editions, some cheap, some expensive. Third, if consistent high sales over a long period is the criterion, then surely late 20th century writers like Michael Crichton should not come into your thinking at all - I would say he is in your "faddish" category. Perhaps you should define your requirements more precisely.









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