BADGE a Bestseller

Someone just sent me this list of December bestsellers from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association:

Hardcovers
1. CONSENT TO KILL by Vince Flynn
2. SPECTRES IN THE SMOKE by Tony Broadbent
3. THE LINCOLN LAWYER by Michael Connelly
4. GRAVE SIGHT by Charlaine Harris
5. THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE by Lee Goldberg
6. SHROUD OF THE THWACKER by Chris Elliott
7. DELETE ALL SUSPECTS by Donna Andrews
8. FALL OF THE PHILANDERER by Carola Dunn
9. DERMAPHORIA by Craig Clevenger
10. THE FIREMAKER by Peter May

FYI, the number one paperback on the list is SOLOMAN AND LORD by my buddy Paul Levine, so he’s buying when we have lunch next week.

UPDATE 12-22-05: I have reason to doubt whether this list is accurate. The email I received reproduced an Independant Mystery Bookseller Association bestseller list that was reprinted in the December newsletter of the Aliens and Alibis Bookstore. However, the December IMBA bestseller list doesn’t actually come out until January…so where did this list come from?

I’ve contacted Aliens and Alibis, and they aren’t sure where they got the list that they published. I’ve enlisted some friends of mine at various mystery book stores to help me figure out whether this is an early IMBA list, another individual bookstore’s bestseller list, or whether it’s a Christmas shopping list someone dropped on the sidewalk somewhere. I’ll let you know what I discover.

7 thoughts on “BADGE a Bestseller”

  1. Thank you!
    I wouldn’t have known if someone hadn’t sent me the newsletter from the ALIENS & ALIBIS Bookstore, which published the list from the Independant Mystery Booksellers Association.
    I don’t know how many books you have to sell to get on the list, but it’s nice to know I was right to hit the road for signings… though my activities were limited to the West Coast.
    I doubt more than three or four copies of the book would have been stocked at some of those stores I visited if I hadn’t been doing signings.
    I signed at Mysteries to Die For, The Mystery Bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy, Mystery and Imagination, Book’em, M is for Mystery, and the Seattle Mystery Book Store (and via the UPS, for Murder By The Book in Houston). I also signed at a few Barnes & Noble stores in L.A, Santa Monica, Walnut Creek, and Seattle.
    It’s a shame I wasn’t able to hit more mystery bookstores around the country, but it didn’t make a lot of financial sense for me to personally bankroll a national tour. The book wasn’t out in time for Bouchercon, or I would have gone and used the opportunity to hit some stores in the mid-west or East Coast.
    Oh well — maybe I’ll get a second chance if the book comes out in paperback.

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