The SFF All-Time Sales List

[Gabi]

I was surprised that Sir Terry Pratchett wasn't among the top of the tops. my wishful thinking would have placed him higher.

[Gabi]

And embarrassingly I've never read anything of the highest ranking German entry (the Hohlbeins). My mother used to read them.

[Jim]

I'm surprised by this list for the reasons you listed John plus Zelazny's rank. I wouldn't have thought he'd be as high. I'm a real fan, but it doesn't seem as if he's too popular now even though we're about to read one of his books. I hadn't realized Bunch & Cole's Sten series was so popular, either.

I think the numbers are way off on some. Bradbury & Asimov have to have sold more copies. I'll bet foreign & early sales just didn't get counted. It's much easier with someone like Keyes who only has one book to track. Still, I found this really interesting. Thanks.

[Silvana]

I was about to reply with Charlie Hunnam's version of Arthur in the recent Guy Ritchie's flick, but then I realized it is a typo.

Anywho....

2018 figures....so I guess some more recent authors like K. Hurley's sold more books now. Surprised to see some like Le Guin and Scalzi so low in the list.

Slightly OOT, but I've been following Adam Whitehead (the blogger) at Twitter for a while and he has a fun project on building fantasy worlds to look like planets: http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2016/...

[Oleksandr]

John wrote: "Another one that surprised me was the huge difference between Asimov and Heinlein. I always thought of them as being equal.."

Asimov's figure is for Foundation series alone, according to the note

[DivaDiane]

I’m most surprised by Ray Bradbury’s “low” sales (in comparison)!

[MadProfessah]

I’m surprised Rothfuss’ sales would be above Scalzi’s? I don’t know how accurate this list is—what’s the source?

[CBRetriever]

MadProfessah wrote: "I’m surprised Rothfuss’ sales would be above Scalzi’s? I don’t know how accurate this list is—what’s the source?"

I'm not. The Name of the Wind was a huge best seller in most of the world. And sales probably went up after the announcement of a movie and TV series in the future.

[Najaf]

i guess it has to be me but who are the best selling arthurs of sff world?

for reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

[CBRetriever]

hah! Three qualify

Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur C. Clarke
or
George Orwell (pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair)

[CBRetriever]

John wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "hah! Three qualify

Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur C. Clarke
or
George Orwell (pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair)"

More than that Burroughs, ..."

They have Arthur as part of their names?

[CBRetriever]

It took me a while too and I didn't even notice it when looking at the thread title. I presume it's an auto-correct typo

[Sarah]

Lol - I’ve been wondering when someone would say something about the Arthur’s.

[CBRetriever]

John wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "It took me a while too and I didn't even notice it when looking at the thread title. I presume it's an auto-correct typo"

Well, I created the thread and that's not what I inten..."

it's one of those words like capital/capitol and, for me, apartment/appartement that it's easy to use the incorrect choice of Arthur (name) / author (writer).

and don't even get me started on date formats m/d/y or d/m/y or which floor is the first floor.

[CBRetriever]

and for computers, y/m/d works best for sorting