Publishers Weekly has just released a list of the bestselling print books of the first half of 2023. The list is separated into Adult, YA, and Children’s books. Colleen Hoover is the big name in bestselling books at the moment, with seven titles in the top 20 Adult bestsellers with collectively around 4 million sales.
It’s worth noting that this is not a complete picture of all the books sold this year: it’s only print (not audiobooks or ebooks), and it uses BookScan numbers, which don’t include all retailers.
For all categories, these books are disproportionately by white authors. Even with more authors of color getting published than in previous years, they’re not necessarily getting the giant marketing budgets that propel books to the bestseller list — nor are they likely to get the BookTok darling treatment that authors like Colleen Hoover have benefited from.
Here are the top selling print books of the year so far, according to Publishers Weekly and BookScan.
Adult
1. Spare by Prince Harry (1,179,379 units)
2. It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover (884,797)
3. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (881,820)
4. Atomic Habits by James Clear (625,270)
5. Verity by Colleen Hoover (572,626)
6. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (521,797)
7. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (484,267)
8. Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover (444,706)
9. Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover (430,192)
10. Happy Place by Emily Henry (415,684)
11. Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher (374,113)
12. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (350,297)
13. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (356,070)
14. Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score (316,164)
15. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (310,181)
16. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (305,833)
17. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (300,210)
18. Icebreaker by Hannah Grace (298,547)
19. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover (295,717)
20. Twisted Love by Ana Huang (291,578)
Young Adult
1. If He Has Been with Me by Laura Nowlin (345,286)
2. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (275,534)
3. Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow (220,887)
4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (148,193)
5. The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (143,541)
6. The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith (137,643)
7. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (131,126)
8. Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson (127,871)
9. As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson (115,198)
10. Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter (107,069)
Children’s
1. Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea (Dog Man #11) by Dav Pilkey (777,212)
2. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss (491,007)
3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (330,143)
4. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin (300,752)
5. You’re My Little Cuddle Bug by Nicola Edwards (268,580)
6. I Love You to the Moon and Back by Amelia Hepworth (261,753)
7. Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography by Wendy Loggia (227,649)
8. Cat Kid Comic Club: Collaborations (Cat Kid #4) by Dav Pilkey (225,929)
9. Diper Överlöde (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #17) by Jeff Kinney (223,023)
10. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (215,327)
Read more at Publishers Weekly.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
