'Hamilton' the book is now a Paste BN best seller
Here’s a look at what’s new on Paste BN’s Best-Selling Books list…
History lesson: Hamilton. It’s a hit Broadway show and a hot ticket for celebrities and even the president of the United States. It’s won the Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award. And now the musical that can do no wrong is a best-selling book.
Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator and star, and co-author Jeremy McCarter (Grand Central), published April 12, lands at a very impressive No. 3 this week on Paste BN’s Best-Selling Books list. (The full list will publish on Thursday.)
That’s the good news. The bad is that this handsome companion volume to the hip-hop musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton is about as scarce as, well, tickets to the smash show.
The “Hamiltome,” as fans have dubbed it, is on back order on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. (A casual check of a few physical New York City bookstores found some copies in stock.)
Jimmy Franco, a spokesman for the publisher, says the initial print run for the book was 60,000 copies, and that a second printing of 50,000 more copies is due to arrive any day.
(The title is also available as a limited four-color e-book, but the vast majority of sales have been the print book, according to data reported to Paste BN’s Best-Selling Books list.)
The coffeetable-style, photo-heavy book uses a special paper stock that takes six weeks to produce, Franco says. Additional printings have been ordered that should bring the total number in print to 400,000 by this summer, he says.
Hang on, Hamilton fans.
Roberts on a roll: Nora Roberts has her second No. 1 Paste BN debut within two months with her latest novel, The Obsession (Berkley), about a woman haunted by her father’s criminal past.
The other was Brotherhood in Death, part of a series Roberts writes under the pseudonym J.D. Robb. It landed at No. 1 on Feb. 11.
This is the 17th No. 1 debut for the prolific Roberts writing under her own name. Six books penned as J.D. Robb have landed in the top spot.
Roberts has two other titles in the top 50 this week besides The Obsession. The 1999 romance Jewels of the Sun is No. 27, thanks to a special e-book sale price of $1.99. The novel, the first book of the Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy, originally landed on the list at No. 3 in 1999.
And The Liar, a thriller recently released in paperback, is No. 42 this week. It too landed at No. 1 when it was first published a year ago.