The Big First Novel Sweepstakes

Winning this fall’s Big First Novel Sweepstakes so far is The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, (Little, Brown; Hachette Large Print), a book we’ve been writing about since it was introduced at BEA. It rises to #3 on the 9/15 Indie Bestseller list, from #15 last week, its first week on sale. We hear it will  arrive at #6 on the 9/25 NYT list, coming out later today (the list dates are confusing, but both cover virtually the same time period).

The spoiler on next week’s lists could be The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 9/13; Audio, RH Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print, Center Point), published this week after much fanfare. It’s outselling the other big debuts on both Amazon and B&N.com. Holds are growing in libraries and are heavy where ordering is light.

Below are the rankings for the rest of the titles on the new Indie Fiction List, with links to our coverage:

Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on TapePenguin Audio; audio on OverDrive; LT in Dec. from Thorndike) — #5 after 7 weeks; technically this is not a fall title, since it came out the end of July, but it’s keeping some of the other titles out of the top 5. Libraries report that holds picked up after it was an Early Show on Saturday Morning book club pick.

The Language of FlowersVanessa Diffenbaugh, (8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike) — #7, down from #6 after 3 weeks; EarlyWord‘s coverage

We The Animals, Justin Torres. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Blackstone Audio) — #9, moving up from #14 last week; on our Watch List for the week of 9/5

The Submission, Amy Waldman, (FSG; Audio, AudioGo; Large Type, Thorndike)  — #13, first week; THE SUBMISSION — Michiko Likes It!

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