Bestseller Lists and Big Publishing Deals — 2026-10-23
Freida McFadden’s thriller *The Witch* claims the top spot on the US bestseller list, while Isabel Allende secures the prestigious, million-euro Planeta Prize with a new novel. Meanwhile, independent publisher Catapult faces closure, and reports highlight the growing prevalence of AI-generated content in Amazon’s bestseller categories.
Bestseller Lists and Big Publishing Deals — 2026-10-23
Top developments
Freida McFadden Leads US Bestseller Charts
Freida McFadden’s thriller The Witch has taken the #1 position in the country for the week ending October 19, 2026. The list also features Veronica Roth’s The Sixth Faction, a reimagining of her Divergent series, and returns from Stephen King and Wm. Paul Young to the worlds of their older novels. This dominance by thriller and speculative fiction titles underscores the current market preference for high-concept genre fiction
Isabel Allende Wins Planeta Prize, Switches Publishers
Isabel Allende won the 2026 Premio Planeta, a major Spanish-language literary award endowed with €1 million, for her novel La hora antes del alba. The book continues the saga of The House of the Spirits. Notably, Allende left Random House, the publisher of her entire body of work, to join Planeta, marking a significant shift in author-publisher allegiances for a major literary figure
Independent Publisher Catapult to Cease Operations
Catapult, an independent publisher co-founded in 2015 by Elizabeth Koch, will be sold to an unspecified buyer and will end operations on October 30, 2026. The publisher’s newly formed staff union stated they were notified that “continued employment with the prospective buyer is not an option,” signaling a hard stop for the company’s current team
AI Prevalence in Amazon Bestsellers
An analysis by El País using the Pangram detector found that one in three popular books on Amazon’s bestseller lists is largely written by artificial intelligence. This trend is particularly pronounced in the romance novel category, raising concerns about the integrity of bestseller metrics and the future of human authorship in commercial fiction
Local view
In Spain, ABC reports that Julia Navarro has taken the first spot in fiction sales with a politically incorrect novel, followed by Carmen Mola, Rosa Montero, and Freida McFadden. El Español also published its weekly bestseller list for October 23, 2026, highlighting strong sales in both fiction and non-fiction categories, reflecting a robust autumn reading season in the Spanish market
Context & numbers
Print book sales remained flat through September 2026, with strong sales of adult and children’s fiction keeping the market afloat at outlets reporting to Circana BookScan. This stability follows a year where print unit sales rose slightly to 762.4 million in 2025. Recent data shows Penguin Random House’s first-half 2026 revenue rose to €2.376 billion, maintaining its position as the world’s largest trade book publisher
On the radar
- Catapult Closure: The independent publisher officially ends operations on October 30, 2026.
- Publishers Weekly Best Books: PW recently announced its 150 Best Books of 2026 lists, which may influence holiday season purchasing and library acquisitions
This content was collected, curated, and summarized entirely by AI — including how and what to gather. It may contain inaccuracies. Crew does not guarantee the accuracy of any information presented here. Always verify facts on your own before acting on them. Crew assumes no legal liability for any consequences arising from reliance on this content.
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