It is now the 4th year in the row that our #1 Western publisher in the Top 750 is Scholastic. This is no longer an amusing anomaly: this is the new reality. Look at the overall market, and pause and wonder at that dominating 33% market share of pieces sold. Consider for a moment that Scholastic has done this with only two hundred and twenty four books, total! Consider for a second moment that Scholastic only started “doing” comics in 2005.
Just limiting ourselves to the Top 750, Scholastic surges forward in sales this year by selling an absolutely staggering 4.5 million copies, from 58 placing books This is an unbelievable 67% growth from last year (2.7 million copies), which was up 42% from 2016 (1.9 million). In calculated retail dollars, we’re looking at almost $53 million dollars in sales.
This is even more incredible when you start to think that these are sales to book stores (and Amazon) only – none of these numbers (as far as I know) include the direct-to-families sales that happen via the incredibly successful Scholastic Book Fairs. Nor does this count any sales that are being done to elementary and middle school libraries, numbers that likely exceed retail sales. Possibly by a multiple.
Also consider that the next largest publisher sold a combined 661k copies, less than a sixth of their volume.
Scholastic has several imprints...
Arthur A. Levine places 1 book into the Top 750 just as they have for years, and it’s the same book: just a bit over 9k copies of “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan.
Blue Sky is also just 1 book in the Top 750 – Dav Pilkey’s “Ook & Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen” shifting 27k copies, much of that on the sidestream of the success “Dog Man”.
The Graphix imprint has 43 placing titles, for just nearly 4.3m in sales, and is where the big hits live: the aforementioned “Dog Man” and all of Raina Telgemeier’s books (“Sisters”, “Smile”, “Drama”, and the first four “Baby Sitter’s Club” adaptations), all of which are discussed up top. “Dog Man” alone shifts nearly 2.7 million books, to recap. Telgemeier sells “only” 916k.
The post-Telgemeier “Baby Sitter’s Club” steamrolls without her – the 2 Gale Galligan-adapted books sell more than 220k copies.
Graphix also does fantastic with Kazu Kibuishi’s “Amulet” – volume 8, “Supernova” sells nearly 88k copies. All 8 volumes of the series chart, as well as various permutations of box sets – which, can I tell you, are giant dollar generators for Scholastic: I calculate the box set of #1-7 alone generated more potential retail dollars than the release of v8. Altogether, nearly 302k copies of Amulet books are sold within the Top 750.
The 1st book of the adaptation of “Wings of Fire”, “The Dragonet Prophecy” flies in with almost 81k sold
They don’t quite make Scholastic’s Top 20, but Jennifer Holm’s “Sunny” books do excellent as well: selling a combined 66k copies between the 2 books. There’s also a notable launch of Jarrett Krosoczka’s “Hey Kiddo” at just over 21k, as well as Kristen Gudsnuk’s “Making Friends” at almost 17k
Jeff Smith’s “Bone”, which largely launched Graphix, places 4 of the 9 volumes into the Top 750 this year. V1, “Out From Boneville”, sells almost 13k copies this year.
Scholastic also publishes as “Scholastic”, straight up, and they place 13 more titles that way. The big hit is more Dav Pilkey, as “The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby” roars back with some 41k copies sold, while Jeffrey Brown’s “Jedi Academy” books continue to score: the first volume of that perennial series sold about 22k copies this year