It’s not always easy to tell what makes an e-book successful.
Film adaptations certainly help, as does the name-recognition of a popular author with a large fan base. Those are two probable reasons why the entirety of Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” trilogy is back on this week’s list, just as the “Insurgent” movie hits theaters, and James Patterson’s “NYPD Red 3” debuts at No. 2.
But neither can quite account for the eight weeks and counting “The Girl on the Train,” by first-time author Paula Hawkins, has so far spent at No. 1. And the same goes for J. S. Cooper’s self-published “Falling for My Best Friend’s Brother,” which has held strong for several weeks further down the rankings.
Word of mouth remains one of the most powerful recommendation engines around, and it’s something e-book publishers and distributors are striving to facilitate as best they can among readers in the digital space.
In the meantime, prices continue to swing to and fro, with the average price of a best-seller dropping to $5.74 after climbing up to $6.99 last week.
E-book bestsellers from the week ending 3/14:
- “The Girl on the Train: A Novel,” Paula Hawkins, Penguin Random House, $6.49
- “NYPD Red 3,” James Patterson; Marshall Karp, Hachette, $9.99
- “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania,” Erik Larson, Penguin Random House, $12.99
- “The Longest Ride,” Nicholas Sparks, Hachette, $5.39
- “Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy Book 3),” E.L. James, Penguin Random House, $4.99
- “All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel,” Anthony Doerr, Simon & Schuster, $11.99
- “Gone Girl: A Novel,” Gillian Flynn, Penguin Random House, $4.00
- “The Nightingale,” Kristin Hannah, Macmillan, $12.99
- “Divergent,” Veronica Roth, HarperCollins, $2.99
- “Insurgent (Divergent Trilogy Book 2),” Veronica Roth, HarperCollins, $3.99
See the complete list of this week’s top 25 e-book bestsellers at Digital Book World.
Rich Bellis writes for Digital Book World, where this article originally appeared.
