20/11/2010 00:00 |
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Girovagando sul web per vedere quante copie Erikson aveva venduto di Malazan, mi sono imbattuta in questa interessantissima classifica. A parte i primi posti scontati (tra cui il grande King e il compianto Jordan), abbiamo:
la metto sotto spoiler perchè è lunga
Testo nascosto - clicca qui
1) J.K Rowling (350 million)
The Harry Potter series has been a phenomenon the likes of which publishing has never seen. In less than a decade, Rowling went from an impoverished single mother writing in an Edinburgh cafe to one of the richest women in the world, overtaking dozens of writers who had been working for decades in the process.
2) Stephen King (350 million)
In The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1996), it was stated that Stephen King's total worldwide sales in all languages are probably incalculable, and the figure given above is on the conservative side of things. I've seen some figures suggesting he has sold twice this amount, but the 350m figure seems to crop up most often. Some may argue that Horror isn't necessarily part of the SF&F genre either and King shouldn't be counted, but most of his horror features supernatural forces, which firmly places it as a subset of Fantasy. Also, no-one would really argue that Eyes of the Dragon and the Dark Tower series aren't fantasy, and both of these works are set in the same multiverse as most (or, as some fans argue, all) of his other books, which puts him firmly in the Fantasy genre.
3) JRR Tolkien (c. 300 million)
Tolkien's sales really are incalculable, given how widely his books have been copied, published without permission and distributed worldwide in the last fifty years. However, it is pretty clear that by itself The Lord of the Rings is the biggest-selling single genre novel of all time, and possibly the biggest-selling single novel full stop of all time. 50 million copies of the novel have been sold this century alone. When you factor in the massive sales of The Hobbit, and the smaller but still significant sales of The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and The Children of Hurin, plus his non-Middle-earth work, Tolkien is clearly a major force in SF&F publishing, arguably all the more notable as his output was small compared to some others on this list.
4) CS Lewis (120 million)
It is perhaps fitting that Tolkien's one-time best friend and sometimes collaborator should be next on the list. The 120 million sales is allegedly for his Chronicles of Narnia series by itself, and doesn't include his numerous non-fiction books or his other novels, such as his Space Trilogy.
5) Terry Pratchett (55 million)
Up until Rowling overtook him around the turn of the century Pratchett was a bona-fide phenomenon, publishing at least two novels a year for almost twenty years and being responsible for the sales of over 1% of all books sold in the UK and his books hitting the top of the Times bestseller lists like clockwork. Major success in the USA had eluded him until The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents won the Carnegie Prize in 2001. Following on from that, his US profile steadily rose until his books began hitting the NYT bestseller list as well. Aside from the occasional bit of mickey-taking, Pratchett was good-natured about losing out on his position as Fantasy's biggest-selling living author (with the King debate still going on) to Rowling, although his ire was provoked when some Potter fans complained that Equal Rites (1987) ripped off Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), demonstrating a flexible interpretation of causality. Whilst Pratchett has now been firmly overtaken by Rowling, he bore it with equanimity and proudly maintains his position as the UK's most shoplifted author.
6) Robert Jordan (44 million)
Given how it dominates the discussion on some forums, this would seem to be a fairly lowly position for the biggest-selling of the modern epic fantasists. However, by any standards this is a seriously impressive number of books sold, especially given that the sales are split between a relatively small number of books (I suspect his Conan and Fallon novels' sales are all but negligible compared to those of The Wheel of Time sequence).
7) Terry Goodkind (25 million)
Pinning down concrete figures for Goodkind is harder than most due to some truly batty figures being circulated by his fanbase (at one time claiming he was Tor's biggest-selling author but failing to account for why only half as many copies of his latest book had been printed than Robert Jordan's). The worldwide figure of 25 million seems to be well-supported, however.
8) Terry Brooks (21 million)
Recently, with the announcement that movie versions of The Elfstones of Shannara and The Sword of Shannara are in development, it was suggested by some papers that Brooks was the 'second-biggest-selling living fantasy author', which would appear to be hyperbolic. An interview with JIVE Magazine reveals them to be rather more modest, although still extremely impressive. His books have sold very well for more than thirty-one years and Brooks, along with Donaldson, arguably kick-started the entire modern epic fantasy subgenre and has been one of its most reliable and visible writers ever since.
9) Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (c. 20 million)
This one was a bit of a guesstimate, coming out of discussions over these two authors' success on a message board several years ago. The figure is certainly highly plausible, with TSR claiming that more than 4 million copies of their Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends trilogies by themselves had been shipped in less than a decade, and this doesn't account for their gaming products, other Dragonlance books and numerous non-Dragonlance novels, many of which have been bestsellers as well.
10) Frank Herbert (18 million)
If there's one thing this list has proven, if you want to be a massive-selling author you're far better writing Fantasy than Science Fiction, unless your SF novel features a ton of Fantasy elements. Frank Herbert's Dune is SF's biggest-selling single novel, with more than 12 million copies by itself sold. I'd also make a fair guess that the other 6 million sales are comprised almost entirely of his other five Dune novels.
11) Eoin Colfer (18 million)
The author of the Artemis Fowl series, which has proven a massive hit amongst YA circles. Colfer was recently picked to write the sixth Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel, following on from the works of...
12) Douglas Adams (16 million)
...whose exceptionally long periods of writer's block and multiple years spent writing very slim novels, not to mention a poor film adaption of his signature novel, haven't affected his immense popularity.
13) Kevin J. Anderson (16 million)
Whilst his Dune novels co-authored with Brian Herbert may have been critically mauled, that hasn't stopped them selling like hot cakes. When combined with his popular Star Wars and X-Files novels, not to mention original works like the Saga of Seven Suns series, Anderson clearly doesn't have anything to worry about.
14) Raymond E. Feist (15 million)
The author of the extremely long-running Riftwar Cycle of novels, which when complete will comprise approximately thirty books. Mixed reviews for his books published over the last decade or so do not seem to have influenced his legions of loyal fans.
15) Christopher Paolini (12 million)
His Eragon Trilogy (now in four parts) may have been ripped into by the critics with a vengeance, but his popularity is clear. In fact, his sales are all the more impressive considering they are largely based on just two books, with his third only released in the last few weeks.
16) Stephen Donaldson (10 million)
Possibly a surprisingly low showing for Donaldson. His Lord Foul's Bane, published in 1977, kick-started the modern epic fantasy explosion alongside Brooks' Sword of Shannara. However, unlike Brooks who has continued to work in the Shannara universe ever since, Donaldson spent a whole decade trying to stay away from his signature character with works such as Mordant's Need and the superlative Gap series before recently returning to the series, and the bestseller lists, with The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
17) Laurell K. Hamilton (6 million)
Sex sells, obviously, especially when combined with werewolves and vampires.
18) George RR Martin (c. 3-4 million)
Again, another guesstimate based on discussions from various forums and the recent revelation that the Song of Ice and Fire series has sold 2.2 million copies (at least in the USA). GRRM is one of the highest-profile authors in the genre and A Dance with Dragons must be one of the most-discussed unreleased books in genre history. Much to the discontent of those who'd prefer he spent his time on Song of Ice and Fire and nothing else, his recent Wild Cards books have been strong sellers for Tor, and his Dreamsongs retrospective was a significant success as well. I suspect this figure is leaning to the conservative side of things, especially given how big Wild Cards was back in the 1980s.
19) Neil Gaiman (2 million)
If GRRM's figure is conservative, this is even moreso, and based solely on the figures I could find for sales of the Sandman graphic novels. Add in his other, highly successful novels and his real sales and position should be much higher.
20) Peter F. Hamilton (2 million)
The modern lord of space opera has shifted an impressive number of his brick-thick novels and with his US profile now growing rapidly, I suspect he's going to get even bigger in the years to come.
21) John Ringo (2 million)
The mildly controversial US author ("Oh John Ringo No,") of military science fiction is clearly enjoying the fruits of his success. People may be wondering where his sometimes-collaborator David Weber is, so I direct them to the 'Unplaced' list below'.
22) Robin Hobb (1 million)
A surprisingly low placing for one of fantasy's highest-profile and most prolific authors? Possibly. This was the figure given by HarperCollins Voyager in 2003 on the completion of her Tawny Man trilogy and applies solely to the nine books published under the Robin Hobb pseudonym in the UK up to that point. They do not include her earlier Megan Lindholm books, nor her later books, nor most importantly her US sales, all of which would likely make her position much higher.
23) Steven Erikson (c. 500,000)
This may be even more of a surprise. The original source for the figure was Bantam UK, who announced shifting 250,000 copies of the Malazan Book of the Fallen in the UK in 2006, upon the publication of The Bonehunters. Given another two books have come out since then, and taking into account his Canadian and American sales, a doubling of that figure seems reasonable, although I suspect the true figure would be slightly less than this.
Unplaced
There's obviously a huge number of authors I couldn't find reliable figures for, many of whom would be fairly highly-placed on the list. I'll see if I can't track these down in the future and keep the list updated:
Isaac Asimov
R. Scott Bakker
Iain M. Banks
Clive Barker
Frank L. Baum
Jim Butcher
Orson Scott Card
Arthur C. Clarke
David Eddings
Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket)
Robert Heinlein
JV Jones
Guy Gavriel Kay
Richard Morgan
Philip Pullman
Alastair Reynolds
RA Salvatore
Darren Shan
Neal Stephenson
David Weber
un cattiveria-Goodkind a 25 milioni O_O
un noia-Brooks a 21 O_O
la coppietta di Dragonlance a 20 mil O_O(non me lo aspettavo veramente quelle cifre da loro).
Un Martin a 4 milioni (con soli 4 libri però, qui invece mi aspettavo di più dal mio ciccione preferito)
La Hobb è a 1 milione e Erikson a 500.000 copie
A voi c’è qualcosa che stupisce di questa classifica? I dati sembrerebbero essere veri, li ho controllati e anche se sto quotando un forum straniero, la fonte è autorevole(società di book-tracking americana).
FONTE
Ecco da dove ho preso la classifica
www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/47251-all-time-sf-and-f-bestseller-l...
[Modificato da Depositaria Marzia 20/11/2010 00:08] |
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20/11/2010 00:15 |
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| | | OFFLINE | Post: 5.091 | Registrato il: 27/11/2006
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A me fa strano che Martin ne abbia così pochi...
ma di che anno è la stima? Perché forse la spinta Goodkind è per la Serie TV che tra l'altro è un quarto di FLOP però non saprei!!!
Mi sembrano esagerati!!!! E di King si parla di tutte quelle copie solo per la Torre Nera o di tutte le sue opere? Nymi
"e vagai tra i fiumi"
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20/11/2010 00:22 |
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| | | OFFLINE | Post: 152 | Registrato il: 26/02/2009
| Città: ROMA | Abitante di AURENDOR | SCUDIERO | |
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Nymeria alcuni dati hanno stupito anche me rispondendo alla tua domanda, sono conteggiate nella classifica tutte le opere scritte dall'autore
Non lo so di quando è, il post quotato però è di fine 2008. [Modificato da Depositaria Marzia 20/11/2010 00:27] |
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20/11/2010 02:59 |
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| Città: MILANO | ********Moderatore******** | RE | |
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Beh, se sono comprese tutte le opere di un autore alcuni dati sono comprensibili, la cosa che mi stupisce di più è Narnia.
Posso capire che i mitici genitori di Dragonlance abbiano all'attivo tutti quei milioni, visto che hanno scritto più di 20 libri, stessa cosa per Terry Brooks e ancora di più per King, che di libri ne ha scritti 200.000.
Ma che Lewis è la sua Narnia abbiano venduto 120 milioni di copie?!?, questo è inspiegabile.
Riguardo Martin, per quanto sia davvero bella la sua saga è molto cruento e poco fantasy, qui in italia è stato avvantaggiato dal fatto che l'abbia pubblicato la Mondadori, e non per esempio la Fanucci, altrimenti non credo che avrebbe tutto quel seguito.
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20/11/2010 11:59 |
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| Città: MINEO | ********Moderatore******** | LORD | ******** Il Kender ******** | |
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Lewis era uno stimato professore inoltre non sottovaluterei neanche l'allegoria cristiana che stà dietro Narnia per finire con la considerazione che comunque sono libri più datati rispetto ad altri.
che Brooks si piazzi tra i primi non mi stupisce per niente del resto è stato un battistrada (poi che piaccia o meno...)
Per quanto riguarda Weis ed Hickman ma del resto anche Salvatore bisogna ricordare il grande indotto dei giochi di ruolo che altri autori di levatura superiore non hanno...
Personalmente mi stupisce di più la mancanza della leGuin e della Zimmer Bradley in classifica
Mi fà piacere vedere il grande Pratchett tra i primi posti.
Per quanto riguarda il resto penso chhe king in questa classifica ci possa stare e non stare a meno che non si considerino solo i lavori prettamente di genere fantastico...
Infine credo anch'io che Goodkind sia il vero "intruso" della classifica [Modificato da Guntram 20/11/2010 17:43]
Il mio mondo vive di sogni...
...e sta morendo di realtà. |
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20/11/2010 16:18 |
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impresisonante,pensavo che il sda avrebbe stracciato tutto e tutti... |
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20/11/2010 17:08 |
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Direi che non sono per niente stupita da questa classifica, no, no...
Sempre le stesse saghe, sempre gli stessi scrittori, sempre lo stesso filone narrativo...
(ma Twilight dov'è, a proposito? E James Patterson? O non si conta perché una larga parte delle sue vendite sono attribuibili ai suoi thriller e non ai fantasy?)
Meno male che c'è il Maestro King in cima , insieme alla Rowling, la cosa mi rallegra un pò...
"All along, I was searching for my Lenore,
In the words of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.
Now I'm sober and nevermore
Will the raven come to bother me at home?"
Kremlin dusk - Utada Hikaru
"Tu credi che questo sia stato difficile? La verità ti spezzerà il cuore."
(Lady Sophie di Nessun Dove - "La Chiave del Caos")
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20/11/2010 17:26 |
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Dimonhus, 20/11/2010 16.18:
impresisonante,pensavo che il sda avrebbe stracciato tutto e tutti...
Ma il signore degli anelli è solo un libro (o al massimo tre, ma penso che tutti comprino la versione integrale), mentre per gli altri si parla di una media di dieci libri ad autore, chi più chi poco meno... |
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21/11/2010 00:31 |
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| Città: BEDIZZOLE | Abitante di AURENDOR | PAGGIO | |
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Questa lista a mio avviso è molto discutibile.
In primis si capisce che è una lista fatta da un americano ed è dedicata solo agli autori americani e anglosassoni.
La nostra Licia Troisi nazionale ad esempio ha venduto solo in Italia 900 mila copie e circa 300 mila nella sola Germania . Citare una autrice italiana in una lista palesemente di parte? L'autore sicuramente avrà provato ribrezzo.
Che la Rowling e king siano primi in quanto a numero di copie vendute
me lo aspettavo, potere del marketing sicuramente, perchè dal punto di vista qualitativo Harry Potter e la saga de 'la torre nera' sono propio inferiori anni luce a saghe come 'il signore degli anelli' o 'La caduta di Malazan'.
Questa lista poi non considera il fattore temporale....
Saghe come quelle di Lewis e di Brooks sono in commercio da oltre 40 anni, per cui mi sembra ovvio che abbiano venduto così tante copie rispetto ad un Erikson o ad un Martin, le cui saghe esistono da soli 10 anni.
Paolini per ragioni di decenza lo avrei cancellato da questa lista.
A coloro la quale pensano che la copia weiss/Hichman non meriti il nono posto, consiglio di leggere la saga di Death Gate.
Cia ciao a Tutti! 'Ah tutto accade una volta soltanto
ma una volta, si, deve accadere.
per valle o monte, per prato per campo,
dobbiamo svanire, per sempre tacere...'
M. Ende "La storia infinita" |
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