# Where do you go to find out how many copies a book is sold?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-go-to-find-out-how-many-copies-a-book-is-sold/687080
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 26, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-go-to-find-out-how-many-copies-a-book-is-sold/687080 "2014-04-26T22:36:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-go-to-find-out-how-many-copies-a-book-is-sold/687080/1 "2014-04-26T22:36:05Z")
Perhaps my google-fu is weak, but I can’t seem to find it.
Is it private info?
Thanks in advance.
I man _has_ sold, dammit.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-go-to-find-out-how-many-copies-a-book-is-sold/687080/2 "2014-04-26T22:41:51Z")
[Earlier thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=705896) with some answers.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-go-to-find-out-how-many-copies-a-book-is-sold/687080/3 "2014-04-26T22:46:13Z")
Normally that information is private to the publisher and author. As a matter of policy, never believe figures made public.
There are services that report on book sales, like BookScan, but all of them have limitations, and all of them are so expensive that authors usually can’t afford them. Some larger organizations, like authors groups, may buy in and make info available to members.
You can sometimes get figures on bestsellers from news articles, but remember that books come in multiple editions and it’s usually never clear whether those figures includes all possible editions or not.
The near-total lack of information on book sales has historically been one of the weirdest things about the entire publishing industry, which has been stuck in the 19th century for 115 years.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-go-to-find-out-how-many-copies-a-book-is-sold/687080/4 "2014-04-27T01:49:15Z")
If you want to know about the best-selling books of all time, here’s a list of the estimated numbers. Obviously, there are a lot of problems with this list. Some of the problems are mentioned in the article:
> **[List of best-selling books](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books)**
>
> This page provides lists of best-selling books and book series to date and in any language. "Best-selling" refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Comics and textbooks are not included in this list. The books are listed according to the highest sales estimate as reported in reliable, independent sources. This list is incomplete because there are many books, such as The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Don
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### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-go-to-find-out-how-many-copies-a-book-is-sold/687080/5 "2014-04-27T02:03:36Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> You can sometimes get figures on bestsellers from news articles, but remember that books come in multiple editions and it’s usually never clear whether those figures includes all possible editions or not.
And that information probably came from a press release or PR person, so while I’m not saying it’s inaccurate, it may not represent a full picture either, For example, does “more than a million copies sold” include foreign translations? Not that it matters to most people - a million copies is an impressive figure regardless of whether the book is in English, Spanish, French or Swahili.