Thank you for doing this analysis! This is so interesting. I’m surprised that one of Ali Hazelwoods novellas made the top 10 instead of one of her other two full length books this year! Is there anyway to break down by debut authors?
Ali's novella Hot for Slayer performed really well, staying at either #1 or #2 on four of the 2025 lists I used. I'm guessing it was a combination of Ali's popularity, the story being available as part of Kindle Unlimited and the short length (low commitment). I don't have a breakdown by debut author, but I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of these are not debuts. Alchemised is SenLinYu's debut novel, but they were a very popular fanfic writer previously. Game Changer is Rachel Reid's debut (2019) and it obviously has been boosted by the Heated Rivalry TV show. Most of these authors have been in the game for a while.
Circling back with my thoughts! I was surprised that Big 5 Trad share is so low—I’d say this post is certainly an ad for Carpe Diem. Sad that historical fiction is so absent (but also acknowledge that it’s been hard to find and also that’s this is a review of Romance/ not HF). I wonder when the billionaire trend will end. I was surprised I had never seen #1 book, but also surprised that I had seen may more and even read them. (I’m clearly more an HF reader than romance, it I think my love of fantasy helps here).
Wow, thank you for this succinct breakdown! It's always interesting to see in hard numbers what titles are actually selling vs what might just be popular in my online bubble.
As someone who's interested in how authors or books build reputation over time, I'd be super curious to see the average publication age of each of these bestselling books by the time the data was collected or even how many books each author had published before each title. I think it'd be quite compelling information to compile (both from a marketing and career perspective), though the latter especially would probably be a lot more finicky to do.
This is really mind blowing in multiple ways!
Would love to hear your thoughts!
Thank you for sharing this info. It's fascinating!
You’re welcome!!
Thank you for doing this analysis! This is so interesting. I’m surprised that one of Ali Hazelwoods novellas made the top 10 instead of one of her other two full length books this year! Is there anyway to break down by debut authors?
Ali's novella Hot for Slayer performed really well, staying at either #1 or #2 on four of the 2025 lists I used. I'm guessing it was a combination of Ali's popularity, the story being available as part of Kindle Unlimited and the short length (low commitment). I don't have a breakdown by debut author, but I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of these are not debuts. Alchemised is SenLinYu's debut novel, but they were a very popular fanfic writer previously. Game Changer is Rachel Reid's debut (2019) and it obviously has been boosted by the Heated Rivalry TV show. Most of these authors have been in the game for a while.
Circling back with my thoughts! I was surprised that Big 5 Trad share is so low—I’d say this post is certainly an ad for Carpe Diem. Sad that historical fiction is so absent (but also acknowledge that it’s been hard to find and also that’s this is a review of Romance/ not HF). I wonder when the billionaire trend will end. I was surprised I had never seen #1 book, but also surprised that I had seen may more and even read them. (I’m clearly more an HF reader than romance, it I think my love of fantasy helps here).
Wow, thank you for this succinct breakdown! It's always interesting to see in hard numbers what titles are actually selling vs what might just be popular in my online bubble.
As someone who's interested in how authors or books build reputation over time, I'd be super curious to see the average publication age of each of these bestselling books by the time the data was collected or even how many books each author had published before each title. I think it'd be quite compelling information to compile (both from a marketing and career perspective), though the latter especially would probably be a lot more finicky to do.