It was during our annual Tech Forum conference in March 2008 that PubFight, BookNet's fantasy publishing league, took centre stage for the first time. A few months later came the very first Fakefurt auction. For context, the top 10 titles (based on overall bids) at the time were:
Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
Nigella's Christmas, Nigella Lawson
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Don Cherry's Hockey Stories and Stuff, Don Cherry
The Flying Troutmans, Miriam Toews
You: Being Beautiful, Mehmet Oz
Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell
A Good Woman, Danielle Steel
Hot, Flat and Crowded, Thomas Friedman
Just After Sunset, Stephen King
It has been 10 years since the release of the final Twilight novel and the unveiling of PubFight, and throughout the past decade, industry trends have come and gone: from Instapoets to colouring books, from dystopian teen novels to more dystopian teen novels, from vampires to Fifty Shades of Grey, from Gone Girl to The Girl on the Train and all the thrillers that followed...
However, despite industry changes, there are still several authors who remain at the top of the bestseller list year after year. We're talking: John Grisham, Danielle Steel, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, James Patterson, and Nicholas Sparks. In the Juvenile section, we have Jeff Kinney, JK Rowling, and Rick Riordan. It seems that despite the passage of time, every August we still find ourselves trying to outbid our colleagues for the latest Guinness World Records book. Why? Well, because it's really fun.
So let's step into our DeLorean for a minute, and recap the past 10 years of fantasy publishing.
And to celebrate our tin anniversary in style, we decided to do something extra special this year. While everyone will still compete in their own leagues, you will also have the opportunity to follow our coverage of BookNet's version of a Quarter Quell with a competition between PubFight's All-Stars! The All-Star league is made up of past winners (who are still passionate about PubFight even after all this time), and who agreed to let us post about them on the internet.
This is also an excellent way for all of those without a SalesData subscription to live vicariously through our past champions.
So without further ado, let us introduce our first contestant.
Richard Nadeau of Donkey in the Fog Editions has been preparing for this fight for years. He was last year's overall winner, and also won within his own league in 2012. His publishing house made the highest profit in a single year of any other competitor in the history of PubFight with an incredible $4,425,871,05. He's going to be tough competition.
According to his bio, he is addicted to tacos and continues to search for the best ones on frequent visits to California. He enjoys hiking, but never fails to underestimate the pain that will be incurred and the number of doctor visits that will ensue. He also drinks too much coffee and Diet Coke, but still complains about insomnia. He has an interest in science and art books, and used to collect them, but is not allowed to bring anymore home because he has too many (of course, he continues to do so in secret).
Grab some popcorn and stay tuned as we announce who Richard will be competing against soon. The competition commences next week!
Infographic Summary
10 years of PubFight
Here are the stats:
Most money made by a publisher: $4,425,871.05 by Richard Nadeau of Donkey in the Fog Editions in 2017/18
Only publishers to break $4 million:
Xander House
Supplant Press
Fifty Shades of Slay
Beemster
Donkey in the Fog Editions
Total amount of money made: $790,075,025.16
27% of that was made by the winners
There have been 45 winners in total
