Most Popular EBook Authors

On July 27, Amazon announced that Stieg Larsson was the first to sell over 1 million eBooks for their Kindle eReader and was the first ever member of their newly minted "Kindle Million Club." The success of his Millennium Trilogy, starting with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, has propelled Larsson to the top of most bestsellers lists. He also tops Barnes & Noble's list of most downloaded eBooks for their Nook eReader. And Overdrive, the leading company supplying eBooks to public libraries, lists Larsson as the author of the most downloaded eBooks in public libraries.

Besides Larsson, four other authors are well on their way to joining the "Kindle Million Club." According to Amazon, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, and Stephenie Meyer have all sold more than half a million Kindle books.

As authors of successful book series (in the cases of Patterson and Roberts, more than one successful series), it's no wonder that these five authors have seen their bestselling hardcover books top the lists of bestselling and most downloaded eBooks.

Two of James Patterson's young adult novels, The Angel Experiment and School's Out-Forever, are listed on Overdrive's Most Downloaded eBooks: Juvenile Fiction, while the latest installment of his Women's Murder Club series 9^th Judgment, is in the top 25 on both Amazon's and Barnes and Noble's lists of bestselling eBooks.

The bestselling romance novels of Nora Roberts (writing also as J.D. Robb) repeatedly make the top ten lists of most downloaded eBooks at public libraries, according to Overdrive, and three of her recent novels, Fantasy in Death, Savor the Moment, and The Search are all in the top 100 bestselling eBooks on Amazon.

The success of Charlaine Harris's paranormal Sookie Stackhouse (Southern Vampire) series was boosted by the premiere of the HBO television series True Blood, which is based on the books. The latest volume, Dead in the Family, the tenth in the series, is in the top 100 on both Amazon's and Barnes and Noble's lists of bestselling eBooks, and the very first installment, Dead Until Dark, makes the top ten list of the most downloaded eBooks from public libraries.

Perhaps it's a sign of how the younger generation prefers to consume its reading material, but every one of the four volumes of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight teen vampire series tops the lists of most downloaded eBooks for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Overdrive. In the summer of 2010, Meyer decided to offer a free eBook, the The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, for a limited time. The eBook eventually proved to be a complimentary addition to the series and another top 100 bestseller on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

A pattern emerges from the statistics: the most popular eBook authors are often the most prolific, having more than one book or a series of books on the market. Other series authors make repeated showings in the most downloaded eBook statistics in 2009 and 2010, such as romance writer Nicholas Sparks, as well as Janet Evanovitch, author of the Stephanie Plum series.

But a successful series isn't always necessary to make the list of most popular eBook authors. Movie adaptations often boost the popularity of an author's book. As of July 2010, three authors without a series of novels nevertheless spent a year or more on Amazon's top 100 Kindle bestsellers list. Each of them is either a newly released or soon-to-be movie: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Help by Kathryn Stocket, and Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

Finally, for those who might dread we've all turned to new releases and guilty-pleasure page turners, classic authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austin, and Robert Louis Stevenson repeatedly top the list of most downloaded eBooks from booksellers and public libraries, because their books have outlasted copyright laws and are free for download.

Resources:

Amazon News Release "Larsson is the first author to join the new "Kindle Million Club" http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=1452372

Amazon News Release "Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Hardcover Books" http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1449176&highlight=

Overdrive.com "Most Downloaded Books from the Library, July 2010" http://search.overdrive.com/Most-Downloaded-Audiobooks-eBooks-Library.aspx

Amazon.com Kindle Bestsellers Archive http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2010-06/digital-text/154606011/ref=pd_ts_kinc_mte

Barnes and Noble Bestselling eBooks

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks/bestsellers.asp