If you took a look at global sales trends for the biggest authors in the world you would find that Khaled Hosseini and Ken Follett are globally the most popular writers, and by that I mean they are the only two writers to turn up on seven top 10 lists of the nine countries that keep national data. The story was published in The Bookseller.
Behind this international duo were Swedish writer Stieg Larsson and the US thriller writer John Grisham, both of whom charted in five countries.
When the sales rankings of individual hits are factored in Larsson becomes the second biggest selling writer internationally, behind Hosseini.
Stephenie Meyer, Muriel Barbery, J K Rowling, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and Henning Mankell made it into the top 10 fiction lists of four countries.
In total, 387 writers featured in the top 10 fiction charts of the nine countries—France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, China, Spain, Sweden, UK and the US.
However, only 48 writers had top 10 hits in more than one territory, with fewer, just 21 authors, charting in three countries or more.These writers, in addition to those already named, were Alan Bennett, Anna Gavalda, Christopher Paolini, David Baldacci, Elizabeth George, Jodi Picoult, Lauren Weisberger, Michael Connelly, Nicholas Sparks, Patricia Cornwall, Paulo Coelho and Valerio Manfredi.
Roberto Saviano, with Gomorra, should be added to this group, but his book is labelled as fiction in some countries and as non-fiction in others.The international bestsellers lists are compiled by consultant Rüdiger Wischenbart, and are derived from publications including Buchreport, China Publishing Today, El Cultural, Boekblad, and Svensk Bokhandel.
Global top 20 book bestsellers (fiction) 2008*
1 Khaled Hosseini
2 Stieg Larsson
3 Ken Follett
4 Stephenie Meyer
5 Muriel Barbery
6 Carlos Ruiz Zafón
7 Anna Gavalda
8 John Grisham
9 J K Rowling
10 Henning Mankell
11 Alan Bennett
12 Jodi Picoult
13 Christopher Paolini
14 David Baldacci
15 Nicholas Sparks
16 Elizabeth George
17 Lauren Weisberger
18 Michael Connelly
19 Patricia D. Cornwell
20 Paulo Coelho
* Ranked by chart positions on the monthly bestseller lists.
Data was taken from analysis of the 2008 international fiction bestsellers published by book trade magazines including The Bookseller, Publishers Weekly and France’s Livres Hebdo.
