Barnes and Noble has announced that the new Harper Lee title Go Set a Watchman has set a one day sales record for the number of copies sold at US chain. The last book to have this much hype surrounding it was Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, which held the previous sales record in 2009.
Barnes & Noble executive Mary Amicucci predicts that “Watchman” will be the top seller for the year. She noted that it dislodged E.L.James’ “Grey,” the latest in the “Fifty Shades” series, from the No. 1 spot for sales as of Tuesday morning.
In the UK, Go Set a Watchman racked up first-day sales of over 105,000 copies, across print and digital editions, according to publisher Penguin Random House. Meanwhile Waterstones’ own sales for the title are approaching 30,000, James Daunt told The Bookseller.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.