Counts of how many copies a book sold

nealraisman

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I am working on a proposal and was wondering if there is a resource that can tell me how many copies of a certain book were sold. How can one find out how many copies a book sold?
 

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Unless you have access to Nielsen (which is very expensive and, I think, only available to publishing professionals) you're going to have to hope you can find what you want on Google, I'm afraid. You could contact the publisher, author, or agent and see if they'll tell you, but you're not likely to have much success.
 

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I am working on a proposal and was wondering if there is a resource that can tell me how many copies of a certain book were sold. How can one find out how many copies a book sold?

If you have an agent you can ask if he or she can check Nielsen Bookscan.

Otherwise, your best bet is to see, via inspecting the copyright page in the books, whether they were reprinted or had more than one edition.

That won't give you specific numbers, but it will tell you something.
 

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