Stieg Larsson tops Europe’s best-selling authors of 2009

An analysis of bestseller lists from Europe's seven biggest book markets revealed that Stieg Larsson, late author of the Millenium Trilogy, was the top-selling author across the continent in 2009. Also topping the international bestseller list, announced The Bookseller on January 22, are Twilight author Stephenie Meyer and The Lost Symbol writer Dan Brown.

Swedish writer Larsson took the top spot from Khaled Hosseini, who occupied first place in 2008. Larsson reportedly made five bestseller lists (in the UK, Spain, Netherlands, France and Italy) during 2009, as did Meyer's Twilight series (Germany, Spain, UK, Sweden and Italy). The Lost Symbol was reportedly a bestseller in all seven markets, but made third place because of its autumn publish date.

10 best-selling fiction writers in Europe in 2009:

1. Stieg Larsson
2. Stephenie Meyer
3. Dan Brown
4. Paolo Giordano
5. Carlos Ruiz Zafón
6. Camilla Läckberg
7. Herman Koch
8. Tatiana de Rosnay
9. Henning Mankell
10. John Grisham


The Bookseller, which will publish the full top 50 list on January 29, reveals that English-language writers dominate the top 50 list, occupying 21 of the 50 spots. Among the top 20 authors, ten write in English.

The ranking analysed "top 10" chart data reported between January and December 2009 in seven European book trade magazines: Buchreport/Der Spiegel in Germany, Livres Hebdo/Ipsos in France, Informazioni Italiani in Italy, Boekblad/GfK in the Netherlands, El cultural in Spain, Svensk Bokhandel in Sweden, and The Bookseller in the UK. Compilation and analysis was done by Rüdiger Wischenbart Content and Consulting.

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