Best Selling Black Books

This is a corpus of best selling books by Black authors from 2004 through September, 2021. The database includes backlist titles published earlier, but the sales data is from 2004 to September 2021. This was created as a part of an assignment to create a LibGuide for the Pratt Library and Information Studies program.

We defined "best selling" - which is a subjective term in publishing - as books that have sold over fifty-thousand (50,000) copies. We compiled book titles from a combination of best-sellers lists (e.g., The New York Times), publically available lists of books by Black authors from a variety of literary organizations, and by searching the sales of well-known Black authors on NPD Bookscan.

We're sure that we missed some best-selling books by Black authors but to our knowledge this is the first collection of high selling books by Black authors based on actual sales. We hope this will be used as a resource by writers, publishers, marketers, librarians, and anyone interested in the history and legacy of successful Black writers in book publishing.

Note: RTD means 'Retail Sales To Date', and YTD means 'Yearly Sales To Date.' Each column can be sorted by ascending or descending order, or by category, including gender (female or male), type of book (fiction, non-fiction, or poetry), publisher, author, format, imprint, etc.

Imprint

  • Vintage 7
  • One World 4
  • Anchor Books 2
  • Beacon Press 2
  • Berrett-Koehler Publishers 1
  • …

Gender

  • Male 12
  • Female 10

Type

  • Non-fiction · 22 ✖

Publisher

  • Random House · 22 ✖

Format

  • Trade Paperback · 22 ✖
ISBN ▼ Title Type Author Gender Publisher Format Publication Date Imprint RTD Sales YTD Sales
9780307237705 The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream Non-fiction Barack Obama Male Random House Trade Paperback 2007-11-06 Broadway Books 1110449 9505
9780385527460 The Beautiful Struggle: a Memoir Non-fiction Ta-Nehisi Coates Male Random House Trade Paperback 2009-01-06 Spiegel & Grau 83338 3463
9780385528207 The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates Non-fiction Wes Moore Male Random House Trade Paperback 2011-01-11 One World 765641 41660
9780394713519 Women, Race, & Class Non-fiction Angela Y. Davis Female Random House Trade Paperback 1983-02-12 Vintage 92188 23674
9780399588198 Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood Non-fiction Trevor Noah Male Random House Trade Paperback 2019-02-12 One World 654861 133606
9780399590573 We Were Eight Years In Power: an American Tragedy Non-fiction Ta-Nehisi Coates Male Random House Trade Paperback 2018-10-30 One World 55950 4880
9780525434696 I Am Not Your Negro: a Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed By Raoul Peck Non-fiction James Baldwin Male Random House Trade Paperback 2017-02-07 Vintage 75099 5927
9780525434801 Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto In Fifteen Suggestions Non-fiction Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Female Random House Trade Paperback 2018-05-01 Anchor Books 64092 6538
9780525563488 Wow, No Thank You.: Essays Non-fiction Samantha Irby Female Random House Trade Paperback 2020-03-31 Vintage 80954 13830
9780525580065 Just Mercy (Adapted For Young Adults): a True Story of the Fight For Justice Non-fiction Bryan Stevenson Male Random House Trade Paperback 2019-09-10 Ember 75288 24764
9780679744726 The Fire Next Time Non-fiction James Baldwin Male Random House Trade Paperback 1992-12-01 Vintage 393142 58066
9780679749868 Race Matters Non-fiction Cornel West Male Random House Trade Paperback 1994-03-28 Vintage 72469 39
9780679763888 The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration Non-fiction Isabel Wilkerson Female Random House Trade Paperback 2011-10-04 Vintage 538525 71718
9780807000670 Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Non-fiction Martin Luther King Male Random House Trade Paperback 2010-01-01 Beacon Press 56301 10796
9780807028346 We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom Non-fiction Bettina Love Female Random House Trade Paperback 2020-02-04 Beacon Press 64160 29384
9780812984965 Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption Non-fiction Bryan Stevenson Male Random House Trade Paperback 2015-08-18 One World 1194974 92957
9781101911761 We Should All Be Feminists Non-fiction Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Female Random House Trade Paperback 2015-02-03 Anchor Books 436724 20126
9781101912195 We Are Never Meeting In Real Life.: Essays Non-fiction Samantha Irby Female Random House Trade Paperback 2017-05-30 Vintage 94207 5145
9781400082773 Dreams from My Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance Non-fiction Barack Obama Male Random House Trade Paperback 2004-08-10 Crown 1982061 11647
9781580911863 Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches Non-fiction Audre Lorde Female Random House Trade Paperback 2007-08-01 Crossing Press 100278 12080
9781583225813 Are Prisons Obsolete? Non-fiction Angela Y. Davis Female Random House Trade Paperback 2003-08-05 Seven Stories Press 72503 12753
9781626569768 The Body Is Not an Apology: the Power of Radical Self-Love Non-fiction Sonya Renee Taylor Female Random House Trade Paperback 2018-02-13 Berrett-Koehler Publishers 53283 836