From Publishers Lunch:

Record Breakers
By late afternoon yesterday Barnes & Noble was ready to exult that Dan Brown's THE LOST SYMBOL had set a new one-day sales record for adult fiction at the chain (without specifying which book held the previous record, or quantifying the new record). It also set a new mark for adult fiction pre-orders and perhaps most importantly, "the company said that sales for the book were exceeding expectations."Release

In the UK, Waterstone's fiction buyer Simon Burke reported similarly unquantified but record-breaking results to The Bookseller: "We have seen phenomenal sales for the new Dan Brown. The Lost Symbol is Waterstone's fastest selling adult novel since records began and our fastest selling book since the last Harry Potter."

At noon today the Knopf Doubleday Group confirmed that the book had set the record for one-day sales of any book at Random House in North America and the UK.

The company says first-day sales were in excess of one million hardcover copies in the US, Canada, and the UK. Sonny Mehta says "we are seeing historic, record-breaking sales across all types of our accounts in North America for THE LOST SYMBOL. We are grateful to booksellers everywhere for this incredible launch and look forward to working with them to enjoy long and great continuing success with Dan's novel." Citing "unprecedented inventory demand from US retailers," Doubleday has gone back to press for another 600,000 copies.

Meanwhile, Hachette Book Group marked the day with an elegant dinner last night celebrating their 20-year relationship with "the world's bestselling author" James Patterson. (His 34 No. 1 New York Times bestsellers have earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.) Calling him "quite simply the best storyteller alive," HBG USA ceo David Young noted that Patterson "is a pivotal part of five of our six divisions" (FaithWords/Center Street is the outlier). As he put it, "working with Jim makes us better publishers. He makes us dream big."Patterson spoke to the group about his twin passions: "storytelling" and "trying to do what I can to get kids in this country reading, and loving it."

As for Dan Brown, Patterson remarked, "Good for him, good for his readers, and good for booksellers."