In March, negative Amazon Kindle critics overwhelmed the reviews section for the new book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis–urging customers to boycott his book for its lack of a Kindle edition.
Comparing Lewis’ book sales to one of his recent competitors, it appears that the negative reviews didn’t cripple Lewis’ sales. According to Nielsen BookScan data, Lewis sold 60,000 hardcover copies of his book the same week as the Amazon boycott. The next week he sold 40,000 copies.
In comparison, Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Wall Street meltdown book Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System–and Themselves only managed to sell 14,000 hardcover copies its first week and 8,000 copies its second week, according to Nielsen BookScan data. Sorkin’s book has a Kindle edition that currently retails for $8.99.
What do you think? See the first month hardcover sales statistics for both books embedded after the jump.
