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Amazon Can't Cage 'The Goldfinch' Publisher

Best-Selling Novel Gives Boost to Hachette Book Group

Donna Tartt's novel has generated more than $10 million for Hachette. ENLARGE
Donna Tartt's novel has generated more than $10 million for Hachette. Associated Press

Donna Tartt's novel "The Goldfinch" opens with a series of gloomy scenes—a museum bombing, the death of the narrator's mother, and the theft of a 17th–century painting. The word admirers often use to describe it is "Dickensian."

But the book has brought only good news to publisher Hachette Book Group, giving the publisher a much-needed boost this summer as it weathers the fallout from a lengthy e-book contract dispute with Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 1.55 %

"The Goldfinch" has been on the New York Times' best-seller list for 43 weeks since publication last October. Its staying power has translated into sales of 583,000 hardcover copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, although total hardcover sales have now likely topped 600,000 including sales not measured by Nielsen.

That's a hit by any standard, and would have put it on Publishers Weekly's top 10 list for best-selling fiction in hardcover for all of 2013.

Typically, for a hardcover fiction best seller, e-book sales are in the range of hardcover sales. All in, this means the novel has generated in excess of $10 million in revenue for Hachette, said one publishing executive who asked not to be identified. "It's not all profit—they have to produce and market it—but 'The Goldfinch' has been a hugely successful book," said this person.

Amazon's dispute with Hachette, which includes how revenue from e-book sales should be split, started in May and has stretched through the summer. Amazon has applied pressure to Hachette and its authors by not allowing consumers to preorder Hachette books, offering less discount on many Hachette books, and delaying shipment on some Hachette titles. Some Hachette authors say those tactics may have crimped the sales of potential breakout books.

But the dispute hasn't crippled the publisher. The Hachette Book Group generated about €226 million ($300 million) in the U.S. and Canada in the first half of the year, up 5.6% compared with the same period of 2013, according a filing made by French parent Lagardère MMB 1.26 % SCA. Among the factors Lagardère cited for the gain were sales of "The Goldfinch" and "The Silkworm," written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Hachette fiction best sellers this summer include new titles by James Patterson, Elin Hilderbrand, David Baldacci, as well as Ms. Rowling's work, which published in mid-June. Those four authors also wrote best sellers that Hachette published in the summer of 2013. But a difference-maker this season has been "The Goldfinch," which ranked No. 5 on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list in the issue of the Book Review dated Aug. 31.

"The Goldfinch" was published a full six months before Amazon and Hachette began fighting, so it benefited from the online retailer's support. Last November, as the holiday selling season was about to get underway, Amazon gave "The Goldfinch" a huge boost by naming it the best book of the year. The novel, Amazon's editorial team said, was "an emotionally trenchant masterpiece."

And unlike many new Hachette titles caught in the crossfire of the e-book dispute, "The Goldfinch" is being offered at a significant discount on Amazon. As of Sunday the online retailer was selling the hardcover edition for $18, a 40% discount from the cover price, and shipping it immediately. The Kindle e-book was priced at $6.99. Both were cheaper than the same editions offered at Barnes & Noble's online store.

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to discuss the retailer's pricing approach to "The Goldfinch."

Amazon's early support isn't the only factor in the book's success. Independent booksellers, which also gave the title strong early support, say demand for "The Goldfinch" has been steady. "We've sold a ton of her books," said Gayle Shanks, a co-owner of Changing Hands Bookstore, which has two locations in Arizona. "People were waiting for the next great thing from her, and they weren't disappointed."

It helps that people are talking about it. "It's like 'The Help' and 'Gone Girl' in that you feel you have to read it in order to be part of the national conversation," said Reagan Arthur, publisher of Hachette's Little, Brown & Co., which published "The Goldfinch."

Ms. Arthur said that Ms. Tartt helped her cause by touring in support of her book, including an appearance prior to publication at Book Expo America, the industry's big trade show. And while Ms. Tartt has little social-media presence—she uses neither Twitter nor Facebook to promote her work—Little Brown launched an aggressive online and print advertising effort to get sales rolling.

Ms. Arthur said that the book got a second wind in April when it was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, with judges praising its "exquisitely drawn characters."

"The Pulitzer Prize meant sales never flagged," said Ms. Arthur.

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com

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