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- Being a Bestselling Author is A Big Deal
- 1. Amanda Gorman: Call Us What We Carry
- 2. Sarah M. Broom: The Yellow House
- 3. Will Smith: Will
- 4. Chris Herring: Blood in The Garden
- 5. Bryan Stevenson: Just Mercy
- 6. Laura Coates: Just Pursuit
- 7. Zakiya Dalia Harris’: The Other Black Girl
- 8. Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
- 9. Charmaine Wilkerson: Black Cake
Being a Bestselling Author is A Big Deal
Being a bestselling author generally means that an author’s (new) book has exceeded its expected sales. Depending on which bestselling list books end up on, these sales must be within/exceed a specific range and/or have diverse sales.
Some of the most well-known bestseller lists are hosted by, the New York Times, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. Even with their own curated lists, these lists feature many of the same books.
Imagine your favorite family member shopping on Amazon and seeing your book top 10 on their book bestseller list. Or your inspiration reading a New York Times book review of your debut novel, top 5 on their bestseller list. To have that official stamp or sentence at the top of your book, that is being sold and read in places you’ve never been is a big deal.
For any author who publishes their book traditionally, having a best seller is a big deal. For black authors, I say, an even bigger deal if not the same.
That sort of literary success contributes to positive racial stereotypes and pushes the probability of black authors succeeding financially higher. These bestseller books especially catch the attention of black audiences and use the medium to educate, uplift, affirm, testify, comfort, and inspire.
For this Black History Month, here are 18 Bestselling books by back authors to put on your shelf
1. The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
Nonfiction, memoir
Reviewed in articles featured in The Atlantic, The Guardian, and the New York Times The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom has received much praise. Her book sheds light not only on her intriguing upbringing in the yellow house but also on her local and the larger communities of New Orleans.
2. Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
Poetry
3. Will by Will Smith
Nonfiction, memoir
4. Blood in The Garden by Chris Herring
Nonfiction, Sports
5. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Fiction
6. Laura Coates: Just Pursuit
Nonfiction
7. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalia Harris
Fiction
8. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Nonfiction, comedy
9. The Heaven & Grocery Store by James McBride
Fiction
10. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Nonfiction
11. Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
Fiction
12. Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton
Nonfiction
13. Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock, MD
Nonfiction
14. Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity by Michele Norris
Nonfiction
15. Maame by Jessica George
Fiction
16. I Did a New Thing: 30 Days to Living Free By Tabitha Brown
Nonfiction
Until my next words (on here that is)
Christa
[…] rather than being a spontaneous and leisure activity. I even found a couple of books after doing the 9 Best-Selling Black Authors of 2021-2022 post. My lists of books have also become more varied, having non-fiction and fiction books, […]
[…] rather than being a spontaneous and leisure activity. I even found a couple of books after doing the 9 Best-Selling Black Authors of 2021-2022 post. My lists of books have also become more varied, having non-fiction and fiction books, […]