The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Little, Brown's German bestseller

27.08.08 Anja Sieg

Little, Brown UK has an unexpected entry on the German paperback bestsellers list.

The English-language edition of Stephenie Meyer's latest novel Breaking Dawn is ranked 14th in its third week on sale, having originally entered the weekly list, published in Der Spiegel, in the second spot.

Meyer has a huge fan club in Germany where her publisher Carlsen has sold more than 700,000 copies of the first three titles of the Twilight Saga. But with the translation of Breaking Dawn not due until 14th February 2009, wholesalers and booksellers together with Little, Brown UK decided to make the English-language original widely available, shipping 40,000 books to Germany. A further 35,000 have now been sent across, and the book is expected to break the "magic 100k" barrier, said export sales director Melanee Winder.

Meyer is only the second writer to have made it onto the German bestsellers list with an English-language title, J K Rowling being the first. The last three of her seven Harry Potter books all made it to the top.

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