'The Lost Symbol' Enters Book Market with Record-Breaking Sales
Tuesday was considered "D-Day" by many in the book publishing industry—as in Dan Brown Day. The "Da Vinci Code" author's much-anticipated sequel, "The Lost Symbol," was released in both print and electronic versions. The book's publisher Doubleday, an imprint of Random House's Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, had announced previously that the book would have a first printing of 5 million copies, the largest first print in Random House history.
By Wednesday, the largest first print ever wasn't enough. Doubleday announced that, in light of "unprecedented inventory demand" from U.S. retailers, it went back to press just prior to publication for an additional 600,000 copies.
First-day sales of the book exceeded 1 million copies in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, breaking the one-day sales record for adult fiction. "We are seeing historic, recording-breaking sales across all types of our accounts in North America for 'The Lost Symbol,'" says Sonny Mehta, chairman and editor in chief, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. "We are grateful to booksellers everywhere for this incredible launch and look forward to working with them to enjoy long and great continuing success with Dan's novel."
Barnes & Noble (B&N) and Amazon also issued statements that "The Lost Symbol" broke each retailer's first-day sales records for adult fiction. At B&N, the book also had the chain's highest number of pre-orders for an adult-fiction work. On Tuesday, the electronic version of the book ranked No. 1 over the print version at both Amazon and B&N. By this morning, the print version ranked No. 1 at B&N, while the electronic version had slipped to No. 3. The electronic version still ranked No. 1 at Amazon, with the print version at No. 2.
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- Amazon.com