SFFH on Bestseller Lists

12 May 2002

The debut of Jean Auel's The Shelters of Stone, on six lists, knocks R.A. Salvatore's Star Wars II novelization down a notch or two on several of them. But Salvatore's book enters four other lists, to rank this week on every list in the table below but one. The only other widely selling genre title in hardcover is Stephen King's Everything's Eventual. Meanwhile, the King-associated The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, "edited by Joyce Reardon", debuts in mass market paperback on three lists, while Neil Gaiman's Hugo-nominated American Gods debuts a bit further down on two of those lists. New in children's hardcover is Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer, which the Amazon reviewer calls a "superb sequel". The BookSense list hasn't yet been updated for this week.
Title	NYT 5.19	LAT 5.12	SFC 5.12	USAT 5.09	WP 5.12	WSJ 5.10	London Times 5.12	PW 5.13	Book Sense 5.06	Amz (5.12)	Amz UK (5.12)
Items compiled from each list	30	15	15	50	10	10	10	15	15 hc, 5 pb	25	10
Hardcovers
Auel, The Shelters of Stone	1 ++	7 ++	2 ++	1 ++		1 ++		1 ++
Bisson, Boba Fett: The Fight to Survive	x
Bujold, Diplomatic Immunity	25 =									14 -2
Colfer, Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident	5 ++
Gemmell, Stormrider							7 +				xx
Hamilton L, A Caress of Twilight	x	xxx..	xxx	xxx..		xxx..		xxx		x
Harvard, Bored of the Rings							9 +				xxx (nf)
King, Everything's Eventual	8 -2	10 -2		28 -13	x	8 -2	2 +2	7 -1	x	8 -2	4 =
Reardon, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer	xx	xxx..		xxx..	xxx..	xxx..		xxx..	xxx..	xxx..
Reynolds, Sw: ATOC: Visual Dictionary				x		10 -2		12 -1
Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt			xx
Rowling, Harry Potter.. Goblet of Fire	1 =	xxx..	xxx..	xxx		xx		--	6 +2
Salvatore, SW2: Attack of the Clones	3 -1	11 ++	x	2 -1	4 ++	2 -1	8 -7	2 -1	7 ++	4 ++	1 =
Vax, The Art of Star Wars Episode 2...	22 -16 (nf)
Trade Paperbacks
Hearn, SW Episode II: The Illustrated Companion							x
Rowling, Harry Potter.. Azkaban	2 =	xxx..	xxx..	x			x		1 +2
Rowling, Harry Potter.. Secrets	3 =	xxx..	xxx..	xx			x	--	7 -2
Rowling, Harry Potter.. Stone	4 =	xxx..	xxx..	xxx..			x	--	x
Tolkien, Hobbit/LOTR									xxx..	16 -1
Wallace, SW New Essential Guide to Characters	15 -4 (nf)
Mass Market Paperbacks
Allston, The New Jedit Order: Rebel Dream	x			xx				x		x
Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451		2 +1
Gaiman, American Gods	35 ++			45 ++
Keel, The Mothman Prophecies	x (nf)			xxx..						xxx..
Reardon, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer	15 ++			33 ++				11 ++
Tolkien, Hobbit/LOTR				xxx..						14 +3
Tolkien, The Silmarillion										xx
Wrede, SW 2: Attack of the Clones	1 =			14 -1
	NYT	LAT	SFC	USAT	WP	WSJ	London	PW	Book Sense	Amz	Amz UK
This cell color indicates rankings on children's bestsellers lists						Italics indicates stale data -- rankings from one or more weeks before

The table compiles SFFH books placing on general bestseller lists. The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week are shown, where:
   = same as last week
   + or - with number: difference since last week
   + back on list
   ++ new on list
   x no longer on list (number of x's: weeks off list)

Columns show ranks on lists from, respectively, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, London Times, Publishers Weekly, BookSense, Amazon.com (fiction lists), and Amazon UK (fiction lists). All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.