December 2012 Bestsellers Lists

Yep. It’s still Quiet Houses, topping both lists. Our latest ebook offering, dark and gritty Lovecraftian horror novel Resurrection Child by Lee Pletzers, is snapping at its heels in the number two slot. It will be interesting to see if the paperback edition of Resurrection Child will be a contender for the Top 5 paperbacks when it comes out (soon, treebook fans, very soon). With the exception of The Mighty Quinn, both lists are dominated by non-American authors/editors (Lee Pletzers is a New Zealander by birth and currently resides in Japan). World horror is truly alive and well at DCP.

Top Five Bestselling DCP ebooks for December 2012

1. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2. Resurrection Child by Lee Pletzers
3. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel
4. The Caretakers by Adrian Chamberlin
5. The Mighty Quinn by Paula Stiles

The paperback bestsellers list looks similar, with the surprise addition of one of our older titles, short story collection Ghosts Can Bleed, at number 2. The most excellent Rayne Hall has been promoting her latest short story showcase, Undead: Ten Tales of Zombies, which contains a story by Ghosts Can Bleed author Tracie McBride (that would be me!), and it has had the intended effect of raising awareness and sales of her other work. Thanks, Rayne!

Top Five Bestselling DCP paperbacks for December 2012

1. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2. Ghosts Can Bleed by Tracie McBride
3. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel
4. The Caretakers by Adrian Chamberlin
5. Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery

September 2012 Bestsellers lists

For the third month in a row, Quiet Houses tops the charts for both e-book and paperback sales.  New addition to the Dark Continents family, Rab Swannock Fulton, enters the charts with Transformation, a haunting and beautifully crafted novella that explores Irish folklore in a contemporary setting.

Recently we withdrew the last of the Darkness and Dismay titles from KDP Select (Nook and Kobo owners can look forward to purchasing them soon). We commemorated the occasion by having one last free promotional period for each one, which resulted in a resurgence of interest in the series.  Quite timely, too, as we are working on getting the D&D books out in print via Createspace.

Top Five Bestselling e-books for September 2012

1. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2. Critique by Daniel I. Russell *
3. Transformation by Rab Swannock Fulton
4. Along the Splintered Path by A.J. Brown *
5. A Gentle Hell by Autumn Christian *

(* = from the Darkness and Dismay series)

It’s still the same titles cycling in and out of the top five paperbacks, with the exception of new release Dark at the Heart of the Diamond, a collection of dark speculative fiction short stories by DCP board member Sylvia Shults. I wonder if the afore-mentioned Darkness and Dismay paperbacks are going to shake this list up…

Top Five Bestselling Paperbacks for September 2012

1. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2. Dark at the Heart of the Diamond by Sylvia Shults
3. Let It Bleed by S.L. Schmitz
4. Snareville II by David Youngquist
5. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman

July 2012 Bestsellers lists

Quiet Houses, by critically acclaimed British writer Simon Kurt Unsworth, has been simmering away on our Top Five lists for the last couple of months, and in July it appears to have reached full boil, topping both our e-book and paperback bestsellers lists for the month. Andy Taylor’s e-book short story collection The Drunk and The Dead and Sylvia Shults’ literary mash-up The Taming of the Werewolf make their debut appearance on the e-book list, an occurrence that I attribute to their smiling faces having been front and centre on Dark Continents’ dealer’s table at FandomFest early in the month.

Top Five Bestselling e-books for July 2012

1. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel
3. The Taming of the Werewolf by Sylvia Shults
4. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
5. The Drunk and the Dead by Andy Taylor *

(* = from the Darkness and Dismay series)

After being eclipsed in May by new releases, horror short story readers’ favourite, Phobophobia, reasserts itself on both charts. An interesting development is seeing The Caretakers in the top five paperbacks alongside more recently released titles. The Caretakers, by Dark Continents’ founding member Adrian Chamberlin, was one of the titles with which we launched the company over a year ago. What with electronic and POD publishing, we are no longer constrained to the old model of publishing, which limited many titles to a limited print run and brief shelf life. Now, high quality novels can remain available to readers indefinitely.

Top Five Bestselling Paperbacks for July 2012

1. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2. Snareville II: Circles by David Youngquist
3. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
4. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel
5. The Caretakers by Adrian Chamberlin

 

 

May 2012 Bestsellers Lists

Our first birthday celebrations have just drawn to a close, and what a year it’s been.  We’ve been adding to our stock list at an average rate of one new title a month, plus we launched the first of our Darkness and Dismay e-book series, so we’ve now reached the point where a Dark Continents Bestsellers List has some significance.

So for those kindred spirits who like numbers and lists, here they are:

Top Five Bestselling DCP e-books for May 2012.

1. Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery
2. Snareville by David Youngquist
3. A Gentle Hell by Autumn Christian *
4. Were-wolves, Apocalypses, and Genetic Mutations, Oh My! by Suzanne Robb *
5. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel

(* = from the Darkness and Dismay series)

 

 

Top Five Bestselling DCP Paperbacks for May 2012

1. Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
2. The Collector Book One: Mana Leak by Daniel I Russell
3. Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth
4. Phobophobia edited by Dean M. Drinkel
5. Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery

The paperback bestseller list is an interesting one.  Inkarna does not officially launch for another couple of weeks, and it has rocketed to the top of the charts on the strength of Amazon pre-orders. The list is dominated by non-USA authors; Nerine is South African, Dave and Simon hail from the UK, Dan is a British ex-pat now living in West Australia, and Phobophobia, edited by British author Dean M. Drinkel, features authors from all over the globe.

What does it all mean?  I’m neither a market analyst nor a statistician, so I don’t know for sure.  All I can say is that I love my numbers and lists.