Another PubFight round has come to an end—auctions were held, books were printed and sold or not sold, and trash talk escalated as the weeks went on. And now it's time to wrap everything up. Who were the winners, in terms of both top-selling titles and PubFight players raking in the sales? Let's find out.
You may remember, way back when the leagues first launched, that we told you which titles went for top dollar at BookNet's Fakefurt auction, the titles that we had the highest hopes for. Then, we made you predict which of those would sell the most in the fall season. Want to see how your predictions stacked up to reality? We do!
Which fiction titles sold the most? First, here was your prediction:
Now, the reality of the top 10 bestselling PubFight fiction titles in Canada (for the duration of the PubFight season):
It seems safe to say that we didn't see the popularity of Shari Lapeña's The Couple Next Door coming, while the popularity of Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed did not quite reach the levels anticipated by PubFight players.
Did our non-fiction bestseller predictions fare better?
And now the actual results. The top 10 non-fiction titles:
You nailed the popularity of Canada's great one, Wayne Gretzky. His memoir, 99, must have been the hot commodity under Christmas trees country-wide. But somehow you forgot about another hockey hero, Wendel Clark. His book Bleeding Blue probably earned a tidy profit for those of you who didn't quite pay top-dollar for it.
And lastly, your predictions for top-selling juvenile titles:
And here's the top 10 titles that people really bought:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid #11 was a strong pick and indeed performed strongly. Another eleventh book in a series seems to have surprised our PubFight players: Dork Diaries #11 was higher up on the bestseller lists than we anticipated.
So, how are you feeling about your psychic, bestseller-predicting abilities now? We're guessing some of you are feeling better than others. Specifically those of you who won your leagues are probably feeling more confident than those who mismanaged print runs, lost sales, or over-payed at the auctions and, as a result, came out on the bottom.
We'd like to congratulate those of you who put together winning lists. You saw the sales potential, stayed on top of your print runs, and managed your auction strategy with aplomb. Well done, winners!
The most winning-est PubFight player came from the PRHC league, with profits over $3.6 million. Congratulations go to the grand winner, Lauren Nisbet!!
Here are the remaining leaders from their respective leagues. Congratulations to you, as well!
2. Brendan May, $3.2 million, Simon & Schuster league
3. Chris Labonte, $3.1 million, Figure 1 league
4. Jenny McWha, $2.9 million, Dundurn Press league
5. Tan Light, $2.8 million, Literary Press Group league
6. Bryant Harte & Tracy Kyncl, $2.2 million, Indigo league
7. Lauren Stewart, $1.6 million, BookNet Canada House league
It was a great PubFight season. We hope you all had fun and are looking forward to playing again next year. Start preparing your auction strategy and your trash talk. See you for PubFight 2017!
