Bestsellers Aren’t Always the Best-Selling

Back in my Penguin days, I edited a book called The Dyslexic Advantage. 

The authors — Brock and Fernette Eide — are respected experts in neurology and education. When their book originally published as a hardcover in 2011, the Eides had a thriving private practice helping neurodiverse children and families, their blog had a consistent following (because it was 2011!), and they attended several big conferences every year. 

While the Eides were certainly reaching a lot of people with their work, they weren’t — and still aren’t — celebrities or influencers. The hardcover edition of their book sold around 20,000 copies — enough to warrant a paperback publication, but not a blockbuster. (At big houses like Penguin, 20,000 copies is generally seen as good — but not great — sales.) 

To be clear — The Dyslexic Advantage never hit a bestseller list. But since 2012, the paperback edition has sold over 100,000 copies. Consistently, slowly. And not because the Eides got any more or less famous. Instead, The Dyslexic Advantage became what’s known in traditional publishing as a “backlist bestseller” — because it found an audience and kept selling simply through word-of-mouth. 

In other words — it sold because the book is great. 

Something that can be helpful to know as an aspiring author is the difference between frontlist and backlist. 

Frontlist books are books that have been published within roughly a year. In 2024, The Woman In Me by Britney Spears is a frontlist book. How to Be The Love You Seek by Nicole LaPera is a frontlist book. 

Backlist books are books that are older than a year. Nicole LaPera’s previous books — How to Meet Your Self and How to Do The Work — are backlist books. Spare by Prince Harry is technically a backlist book too, since it was first published in January of 2023.

Personally, I want all of my books to be backlist bestsellers. 

Partly that’s because I started my career at a division of Simon & Schuster that focused on publishing books that would last — so I’ve been trained to look at books that way. 

But mostly it’s because I want my books to truly matter. 

I want the books I work on and the authors I work with to last longer than the typical New York Times bestseller that hits the list for a couple weeks and then fades into oblivion. 

I want my books — and yours — to be more like The Dyslexic Advantage.