Random House Children’s Books is reporting incredible sales of Brisingr, the third book in Christopher Paolini‘s Inheritance cycle. In what is becoming a thing in publishing, the book went on sale at midnight Friday, and more than 2,500 bookstores held midnight parties, heralding its arrival. RHCB reports sales of 550,000 copies in that first day.
That number is four times the first-day sales of Eldest, the previous volume, in August 2005, but RHCB was ready, but surprised: they printed 2.5 million copies (the largest first printing for any book ever published by the division). RHCB President Chip Gibson said the sales numbers “far surpassed our projections.”
The book was simultaneously published in Britain by Random House UK. They reported first-day sales of more than 45,000 copies. RHUK Children’s Sales Director Helen Randles said “Brisingr is by far and away the fastest-selling book we’ve ever published.”
Publishers Weekly reports that “the first two volumes have sold over 15.5 million copies worldwide. A fourth volume will conclude the Inheritance cycle, though a publication date has not been set.”
PW goes on to compare Brisingr‘s first-day sales numbers to other mega-popular YA books, such as Stephenie Meyer‘s Breaking Dawn (published by Little, Brown in August), which sold 1.3 million copies. And, of course, the record holder: J.K. Rowling‘s final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which sold 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours when Scholastic published it in July 2007.