Wimpy Kid Nearly Doubles Hefty Bush Opening-Day Sales

PublishersLunch

Jeff Kinney's DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: The Ugly Truth, the fifth in his bestselling series, sold over 375,000 copies in its first day on sale according to publisher Abrams. The launch included an event at Book People in Austin, TX, where the author addressed over 1,600 fans to kick off his tour. The specially-branded tour bus will take Kinney to events in Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, and Birmingham, AL, with up to 2,000 fans expected in the various venues.

That opening-day sale is said to be up 50 percent from the big first day for the fourth book in the series, DOG DAYS, released in October 2009. Abrams announced a five-million copy initial printing. Abrams president Michael Jacobs says, "Clearly, excited and eager fans rushed out to buy the book as soon as it was made available. We're looking forward to even more great news as the weekend approaches and kids have time off from school to flood the stores and buy and read the book."

Those results put Kinney well ahead of former President George Bush, whose memoir DECISION POINTS recorded what Random House says is their best opening-day sale for a nonfiction book since Bill Clinton's MY LIFE in 2004.
Crown says that Bush's book sold at least 170,000 print copies and 50,000 ebooks in its first day, with the WSJ reporting that up to roughly 85,000 of those copies were pre-ordered. Crown had announced a 1.5-million-copy first printing. Clinton's memoir was said to have sold 400,000 copies on its opening day.