Who sold the most books in 2024?
Who sold the most books in 2024?
by Melody E. McIntyre
For three years now, I have written here about who sold the most books each year. This question does not have an easy answer as each site uses different metrics. Therefore, finding the exact numbers can be difficult. That is why I have chosen to feature ten of the best-selling authors in 2024 based on a variety of sources.
2024 had some interesting trends. The biggest of which being the dominance of the “romantasy” genre. Fantasy overall saw an increase in sales of 35.8%, with romantasy being a driving factor. As well, 2024 saw the first increase in print book sales in the last three years. It was a modest increase of less than 1%, but it could mark the beginning of a new trend. I still remember when it seemed like e-books would kill print sales, but that has not been the case. Other trends show that adult fiction still sells the most and having a good backlist is key. As mentioned on Lithub, only 29% of the 200 bestselling books of 2024 were actually published in 2024.
This year’s list will include some regulars as well as new names and a couple of surprises. So, without further delay, here is a list of ten of the best-selling authors of 2024.
#1 – Sarah J. Maas
Top-Selling Series: Throne of Glass, Crescent City and A Court of Thorns and Roses
I have produced two previous lists of this kind for Horror Tree: one for 2022 and one for 2023, and both times, Colleen Hoover was the easy winner. But this year, she has been dethroned by fantasy author Sarah J. Maas. Who, as of July 5, 2024, had sold almost 5 million print copies of books from her three popular series. This made her the bestselling BookTok author of the year to date. Her sales beat out the combined sales of the year’s 10 most popular new releases combined.
Maas has built her career writing epic fantasy series starting with Throne of Glass, which she started when she was sixteen years old. She posted the first few chapters on FictionPress.com and it quickly became one of the most popular stories on there. Maas is one of the biggest names in the romantasy genre that, as mentioned, is dominating bestseller lists these days.
#2 – Colleen Hoover
Top-Selling Books: It Ends With Us and It Starts With Us
Despite releasing no new novels in 2024, Colleen Hoover did not fall far from her top spot on these lists. Boosted by the release of the movie starring Blake Lively, It Ends With Us and its sequel, It Starts With Us together sold over 1.6 million copies. The movie came out August 9, 2024, and it is no coincidence that the novel enjoyed a spot at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list from August 11 to September 8. Even with the controversies surrounding the marketing of the film and pushback by fans against the relationships in her fiction, Hoover remains one of the top selling authors.
#3 – Kristin Hannah
Top-Selling Book: The Women
Kristin Hannah may be new to my list, but she is not new to bestseller lists. An American writer who published her first book in 1991, she has written many books, four of which have been turned into movies and one into a Netflix original series. Her best-selling work overall is The Nightingale, which has sold over 4.5 million copies. Her 2024 bestseller, The Women, is about a nurse who serves in the United States Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War. She first came up with the idea twenty years prior to its publication, which tells you that good ideas never truly die.
#4 – Dav Pilkey
Top-selling books: The Scarlet Shedder (Dog Man #12)
Dog-Man is a crime-fighting canine who is a police officer and, despite not having any superpowers, will dress up as “The Bark Knight” sometimes. In 2023, the 11th book in this series, Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea, sold over a million copies, and following in its footsteps is Dog Man #12 which has sold over 1.2 million copies. As I write this, the Dog Man movie is in theatres and I expect to be putting Dog Man #13 on this list again next year.
Dav Pilkey is also the author of the famous series, Captain Underpants, and several others.
#5 – Rebecca Yarros
Top-selling books: Iron Flame and Fourth Wing
On Publisher’s Weekly’s list of top ten best selling books for 2024, only three authors appear twice: Sarah J. Maas, Colleen Hoover, and Rebecca Yarros. Together, Yarro’s two books sold over 1.6 million copies, even though neither was released in 2024.
Yarros began writing while her husband was deployed overseas and is best known for her Empyrean series, which begins with Fourth Wing. Iron Flame is its sequel. Described as “military fantasy”, the series centres on Violet who is called to a military college to learn to ride dragons.
#6 – Freida McFadden
Top-selling book: The Housemaid
For a darker option, we turn again to McFadden’s The Housemaid, a psychological thriller and the first in a series. The Housemaid came out in 2022, but still places in the top ten books sold in 2024, beating McFadden’s own 2024 releases, which include The Housemaid is Watching and The Boyfriend, among others.
Freida McFadden is a practicing physician who writes thrillers and medical humour. She also writes non-fiction and poetry. She self-published her first book on Amazon KDP in 2013, and The Housemaid was her twelfth book.
#7 – James Clear
Top-selling book: Atomic Habits
Rounding out Publisher’s Weekly’s top ten books sold in 2024 is James Clear’s Atomic Habits at the fifth place spot, having sold 982,365 copies. James Clear is a speaker and writer who focuses on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. Atomic Habits is his only book, originally published in 2018.
#8 – Taylor Swift
Top-selling book: The Eras Tour Book
Overall sales in the adult non-fiction category were down slightly (0.5%), but Taylor Swift sold 1.2 million copies of her self-published book. However, this book was ineligible to include in official bestseller lists because it was sold exclusively through Target. It is a 256-page limited edition photobook written and published by the singer as a visual and narrative reflection of her eponymous concert tour.
#9 – Laura Nowlin
Top-selling books: If He Had Been With Me and If Only I Had Told Her
The top-selling YA fiction title in 2024 was Nowlin’s If He Had Been With Me, a book about two friends who drift apart. Originally published in 2013, it fits the trend that only 29% of the 200 bestselling books of 2024 were actually published in 2024. When only looking at books actually published in 2024, Nowlin’s If Only I Had Told Her is the fourth bestselling new book of the year.
Laura Nowlin has written three books and holds a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Missouri State University. She lives in St. Louis and works at the public library.
#10 – Ana Huang
Top-selling books:
Tiktok continues to drive book sales. As the 4th bestselling Booktok Author of 2024, Ana Huang sold over 1.4 million print copies. Her most recent series is Kings of Sin, a series of New York billionaire romances centered on the seven deadly sins. Huang’s other series are all romances, each with a theme and varying levels of steaminess. She writes books with strong heroines, alpha heroes, and “plenty of steam, angst, and swoon.”
Sources:
- Roeloffs, Mary Whitfill “One BookTok Author Sold More Books This Year Than The Top 10 New Books Combined” Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2024/07/05/booktok-author-sarah-j-maas-sold-more-books-this-year-than-the-top-10-new-books-combined/
- Milliot, Jim “Print Book Sales Saw a Small Sales Increase in 2024” Publishers Weekly https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/96842-print-book-sales-saw-a-small-sales-increase-in-2024.html
- Temple, Emily “These are the Bestselling New Books of 2024” Literary Hub https://lithub.com/these-were-the-bestselling-books-of-2024/
- Pango Books “The 25 Best-selling Authors of 2024” https://pangobooks.com/blog/2024-bestselling-authors
- Huang, Ana https://anahuang.com/
- Best-Selling Books on Amazon.com in 2024 https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2024/books
- Wikipedia: various articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/