Publisher Hachette Book Group estimates they sold 1.3 million copies of Breaking Dawn on Saturday, its official publication date. The book, the fourth and final book in Stephenie Meyer‘s “Twilight” saga, has some 3.7 million copies in print after Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (the imprint under which it is published) ordered a 500,000-copy reprint prior to publication.
Borders Group (which includes Waldenbooks stores) reports sales of more than 250,000 copies on their own on that first day. Indeed, they report that “the book was so hotly anticipated that the number of pre-orders they received was second only to the Harry Potter books. Those first-day sales are nearly ten times more than their first-day sales of Eclipse, the third book in the series. Borders also estimates that more than 200,000 fans attended midnight release parties at its stores nationwide, some of which held costume contests, trivia competitions, debates, and other activities, and some of which ran until dawn. Borders CEO George Jones issued a statement saying, “We are thrilled that so many fans came to Borders and Waldenbooks not only to buy this book, but also to share the experience of joining together at our parties to have fun and express their love for Stephenie Meyer and this phenomenal series.”
Little, Brown Senior Vice President and Publisher Megan Tingley called Breaking Dawn “a dazzling grand finale to an epic love story.” Meyer says the series was based on a very vivid dream: “In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately.” Thus was a publishing phenomenon born.
Publishers Weekly, however, isn’t impress with the book: see this review.
Twilight, the first book in the series, was Meyer’s first book when it was published in 2005. Foreign rights have been sold in more than 30 countries. New Moon, the second book, spent 30 weeks in the #1 slot on the New York Times bestseller list. Book three, Eclipse, which was released last August, sold 150,000 copies in its first day on the shelves.