In updating my entry on Mickey Spillane for the new "issue"
of THE THRILLING DETECTIVE WEB SITE, I relied quite a bit on
the slew of obits that popped up to fill out my notes, but it
seems every time I read one, the writer upped his sales
figures.
The first ones suggestion 140 million or so copies of his
books sold, but later obits gradually bumped the sales
figures up, until they were generally hovering around the 200
million mark.
Which is fine -- nobody's ever suggested Spillane wasn't
popular.
But this weekend, I came across an article in USA WEEKEND
that claimed Agatha Christie sold "more than 100 million
copies" of her books. Again, nobody would deny that Christie
moved a few units in her time (or, I guess, that "more than
100 million" could mean 100 gabbadillion).
But did Spillane really sell twice as many books as Christie?
YIKES!!!! Now THAT'S sales figures!!!!
Especially when you consider that Spillane wrote relatively
few books and sold most of them in one particular era (the
fifties), whereas the more prolific Christie was more of a
perennial seller, her books never really vanishing -- even
now -- from the shelves the way Spillane's did.
Does anyone know of any site that tracks sales figures of
various authors? It mnight be very interesting to check
out.
Kevin Burton Smith http://www.thrillingdetective.com
Issue #40 is now up... You've been warned.
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