Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'Bestsellers Lists' Category

Oppie a #1 LOCUS bestseller!

Tuesday, September 1st, 2020

The September 2020 issue of Locus, the US trade journal of the science fiction and fantasy fields, came out today, and my The Oppenheimer Alternative is #1 on the Trade Paperback bestsellers’ list (for the data period of June 2020). The list surveys US and Canadian specialty bookstores (as well as both McNally Robinson branches […]

15 years of national bestsellerdom

Wednesday, July 29th, 2015

Speaking, as we were yesterday, of bestsellers lists, it was fifteen years ago today, July 29, 2000, that I first hit a national top-ten mainstream bestsellers list in Canada. My Calculating God hit #8 on the Globe and Mail fiction bestsellers list, and the following week, it hit #7 on the fiction list in Maclean’s, […]

“Bestselling author” has become a meaningless term

Tuesday, July 28th, 2015

Before the Amazon/self-publishing revolution debased/democratized (take your pick) the term, “bestsellerdom” was easy to ascertain: a book was a bestseller when it appeared on a recognized published-in-print bestsellers list (the most important of which was the one in The New York Times). Such lists do appear still in newspapers and magazines (in Canada, the important […]

Did genre fiction really win the war?

Sunday, March 15th, 2015

Apropos of the discussion that’s been going on here and on my Facebook wall for the last several days about genre fiction vs. literary snobbery, this is an interesting piece from Esquire. But before we get too smug and claim we — the genre-fiction community — have won the war, note that not a single […]

Triggers #1 on Locus bestsellers list!

Wednesday, July 24th, 2013

Triggers byr Robert J. Sawyer is #1 on the paperback bestsellers list in the July 2013 issue of Locus, the US trade journal of the science fiction and fantasy field. The list covers the data period of April 2013. In second place: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Meanwhile, Red Planet Blues by […]

Triggers a Maclean’s and Globe and Mail Bestseller

Saturday, April 21st, 2012

Triggers debuted at #8 on the Fiction bestsellers list in Maclean’s: Canada’s National Newsmagazine in its first week out (list published April 12), and has moved up to #7 in its second week (list published April 19). And it debuted at #7 on the Canadian Fiction bestsellers list in The Globe and Mail: Canada’s National […]

Three titles in the top ten on the Edmonton Journal bestsellers’ list

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Wonder is #4, Watch is #6, and Wake is #8 on the Edmonton Journal fiction bestsellers’ list, published in the April 17, 2011, edition; Edmonton is the capital of the province of Alberta, and the Journal is the largest-circulation newspaper there. Here’s the he full list. Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Facebook • Twitter • […]

Wonder is #1 on the Calgary Herald Fiction Bestseller’s List

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Woohoo! See here. As published in the April 17, 2011, edition of the largest-circulation newspaper in Alberta’s largest city (previous week’s rank in brackets):#1 Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer. A thriller about a new type of consciousness called Webmind. (10) #2 Deadly Fall by Susan Calder. A murder mystery set in Calgary. (1) #3 Captives […]

Missed it by *that* much!

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

The mass-market paperback of my novel WWW: Wake is currently #2 on the bestsellers’ list published in Locus, the US trade journal of the science-fiction field — and I just missed getting the #1 spot. A note accompanying the list says: “The Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell just nudged ahead of WWW: Wake by […]

Steady growth: the name of the game

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

I’ve had seven different new mass-market paperback releases in the last decade. Here they are, in Canadian besteller order (from most copies sold to least): FlashForward (published in mass-market 2000) Rollback (2008) Mindscan (2006) Hominids (2003) Calculating God (2001) Hybrids (2005) Humans (published 2004) Of course, FlashForward — the oldest book on the list — […]

Wake is Bakka-Phoenix’s top selling hardcover for 2009

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Bakka-Phoenix Books, Toronto’s science-fiction specialty bookstore (and the oldest extant SF bookstore in the world), has just released their list of the bestselling books for the entire year of 2009: Hardcover Bestsellers Wake, Robert J. Sawyer Makers, Cory Doctorow Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett Give Up the Ghost, Megan Crewe Trade Paperback […]

#2 Bestseller storewide at Play.com!

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Holy crap! My novel FlashForward — basis for the hit TV series — is currently the #2 bestselling book store-wide at Play.com, the UK’s second-largest online retailer. Here’s the list: Congratulations to Simon Spanton and the team at Gollancz, my British publisher, for getting the book out there with such success. Visit The Robert J. […]

RJS Winnipeg bestsellers

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Fall-out, no doubt, from the wonderful launch party for the FlashForward TV series at McNally Robinson Polo Park in Winnipeg, and from my appearance promoting Wake at Thin Air: Winnipeg International Writers Festival: This week, Wake is the #5 bestselling hardcover fiction title at McNally Robinson’s Winnipeg stores, and FlashForward is the #3 bestselling mass-market […]

Amazon.co.uk bestseller: #66 overall, #6 in genre, #1 in SF

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

The British edition of FlashForward (pictured above), the novel by Robert J. Sawyer upon which the new TV series is based, is a bestseller at Amazon.co.uk, the British version of Amazon.com. It’s reached at least as high as sales rank #66 of all titles in the store (and, at this moment is #81). More: it […]

Holy cow! Wake on Locus bestsellers list for third month!

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

My new novel Wake is on the Locus bestsellers’ list for a third consecutive month. It debuted at #2 (and was the highest-ranked SF, as opposed to fantasy, title) in the April 2009 data period, and was #5 in May (and the second-highest-ranked SF title), and now is tied for #10 in June (as reported […]

Wake on the Locus bestsellers list for a second month!

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

W00t! Woohoo! My Wake, first of my WWW trilogy, is on the Locus hardcover bestsellers list for a second consecutive month. It was #2 last month (and the highest-ranked SF, rather than fantasy book); this month it holds on at #5 (and is the second-highest-ranked SF book). This is my 28th appearance on the Locus […]

Wake back on the Saskatoon bestsellers’ list

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

This week’s hardcover bestsellers’ list for McNally Robinson in Saskatoon: 1. Outliers: The Story of SuccessBy Malcolm Gladwell 2. Master Your MetabolismBy Jillian Michaels 3. Twenties GirlBy Sophie Kinsella 4. Unmasked the Final Years of Michael JacksonBy Ian Halperin 5. Best Friends ForeverBy Jennifer Weiner 6. The Devil’s PunchbowlBy Greg Iles 7. WakeBy Robert J. […]

Wake #2 Locus Bestseller

Friday, July 17th, 2009

W00t! My novel Wake is #2 on the Locus Hardcover Bestsellers’ List. And #1 is a fantasy novel, which makes mine the top-selling SF novel in the stores Locus surveys. Locus is the trade journal of the science-fiction field. Here’s the list, published in the July 2009 issue (for the data period April 2009); the […]

#2 Bestseller in Saskatoon

Friday, June 12th, 2009

McNally Robinson‘s Saskatoon superstore provides the data to the major Saskatoon newspaper, The Saskatoon StarPhoenix, for its bestsellers’ list. My Wake is #2 this week on the hardcover list, having been beaten by … Dr. Seuss! The list, which will be in tomorrow’s (Saturday, June 13, 2009’s) StarPhoenix, is below: Oh, The Places You’ll Go!By […]

Wake #1 Winnipeg Bestseller!

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

McNally Robinson, the bookstore chain based in Winnipeg (the capital city of the province of Manitoba), has just released its bestsllers list for the week of May 17, 2009, and Wake by Robert J. Sawyer is #1 in hardcover fiction. Woohoo! The Winnipeg Free Press, the major daily newspaper in Winnipeg, uses the McNally Robinson […]

Rob the technothriller writer?

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

To my astonishment and delight, my Wake is the #1 “Technothriller” bestseller on Amazon.com: (Posted at 12:05 a.m. on Friday 10 April 2009) 1. Wake by Robert J. Sawyer2. State of the Union by Brad Thor3. Daemon by Daniel Suarez4. Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry5. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown6. Vixen 03 by Clive Cussler7. […]