1983

- from Bowker's Books in Print:
Over a Century of Publishers Weekly® Bestsellers: 1983

FICTION BESTSELLERS

1. Return of the Jedi Storybook by Joan D. Vinge, Random House
2. Poland by James A. Michener, Random House
3. Pet Sematary by Stephen King, Doubleday
4. The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre, Knopf
5. Christine by Stephen King, Viking
6. Changes by Danielle Steel, Delacorte
7. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
8. White Gold Wielder: Book Three of the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, A Del Rey Book/Ballantine
9. Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins, Simon & Schuster
10. The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour, Bantam
11. Who Killed the Robins Family by Bill Adler, Thomas Chastain, Morrow
12. The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov, Doubleday
13. August by Judith Rossner, Houghton Mifflin
14. Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer, Little, Brown
15. Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey, A Del Rey Book/Ballantine


NON-FICTION BESTSELLERS

1. In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies by Thomas J. Peters, Robert H. Waterman, Harper & Row
2. Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives by John Naisbitt, Warner
3. Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession by Erma Bombeck, McGraw-Hill
4. The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard, Spencer Johnson, Morrow
5. Jane Fonda's Workout Book by Jane Fonda, Simon & Schuster
6. The Best of James Herriot by James Herriot, St. Martin's Press
7. The Mary Kay Guide to Beauty: Discovering Your Special Look by Mary Kay Cosmetics Staff, Addison-Wesley
8. On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett, Morrow
9. Creating Wealth by Robert G. Allen, Simon & Schuster
10. The Body Principal: The Exercise Program for Life by Victoria Principal, Simon & Schuster
11. Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Billy Graham, Word
12. Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do! by Robert H. Schuller, Thomas Nelson
13. Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Moon, Atlantic Monthly Press/Little Brown
14. The Secret Kingdom by Pat Robertson, Bob Slosser, Thomas Nelson
15. While Reagan Slept by Art Buchwald, Putnam



1983 AT A GLANCE ...

Hardcover book sales in 1983, at least for bestsellers, continued to rack up impressive numbers, always matching last year's record-breaking figures and in some cases establishing new sales records.

Once again all of the top 25 novels boasted sales of over 100,000 and a few fiction titles with sales just into the six-figure mark didn't even make the list of top sellers.

In nonfiction, each of the top 10 titles sold over 300,000 copies, a first-time-ever feat. A new record of sorts was also set by the #1 bestseller of the year, In Search of Excellence, with its sales of over 1 million copies in 1983; the only other bestseller to achieve that distinction on these end-of-the-year lists was The Living Bible in 1972 and 1973. Also, at least ten nonfiction books that sold well over 100,000 this past year did not achieve one of the 25 nonfiction spots.

In fiction, name authors with track records continued to dominate the list. Once again, as in 1982, 17 of the top 25 fiction titles were by authors who have previously appeared on these end-of-the-year bestseller charts (the same was true for 1982). While two of the three first novels were written by well-known figures in the book or entertainment fields, the third, The Name of the Rose, could be dubbed one of the most unlikely bestselling novels ever--it was written by and Italian professor of semiotics, set in a fourteenth-century monastery, and filled with numerous untranslated Latin passages.

The bestselling nonfiction fare in 1983 was more predictable. But here, too, there were some surprises. While busi- ness, self-improvement, humor, and religious titles dominated, a book about America's backroads made the list of top 15. By far, the strongest category in 1983 was business books, and the top three books in this group-In Search of Excellence, Megatrends, and The One Minute Manager-were also the longest-running bestsellers on PW's 1983 lists.

At $6.95 with about 60 illustrated pages, the novelization Return of the Jedi Storybook could very easily be considered a children's title. Yet it enjoyed a 22-week run on PW's and the New York Times hardcover adult best- seller charts, several times in the #1 spot. A title similar in appeal and scope to last year's leading fiction bestseller, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Storybook, it shares an even more significant feature with its outer space cousin. Both books managed to knock a new James Michener book off a much-deserved spot on top of the year's annual fiction bestselling chart.

Without contest, business was the hottest bestselling subject in 1983; there were a couple of months during 1983 when the top four spots on PW's weekly list were commanded by the four leaders in this category--In Search of Ex- cellence, Megatrends, The One Minute Manager, and Creating Wealth. They ranked #1, #2, #4, and #9, re- spectively, on the 1983 nonfiction list. Except for Creating Wealth, the other three titles also made the top 25 1982 bestseller list, but in much lower spots.

Perhaps the most remarkable performance by any bestseller in many years was achieved by In Search of Excel- lence. The book reached 1 million copies in sales within 10 months of publication, making it one of the fastest-selling books of all time. The sales figure is even more astounding when compared with the publisher's sales advance of 8,100 copies prior to its November 1982 publication date. It was one of the most sought-after books of Christmas 1982 and dominated the top of the 1983 bestseller charts for almost three-quarters of the year. With sales of 1,160,491 in 1983, added to about 122,000 copies in 1982, this title was the best-selling book in Harper & Row's 166-year history.