Bestseller Lists and Big Publishing Deals — 2026-09-27
This week's biggest news: Elin Hilderbrand and daughter Shelby Cunningham's "The Thoroughbreds" lands #1 on the hardcover fiction lists, with Leigh Bardugo's trilogy finale "Dead Beat" and Emily St. John Mandel's "Exit Party" close behind. The NYT updated its lists for Sept. 27, and Spanish-language rankings show the rentrée reshuffling the charts. Fall publishing — packed with celebrity memoirs — is now fully in gear.
Bestseller Lists and Big Publishing Deals — 2026-09-27
Top developments
Hilderbrand/Cunningham debut #1 on hardcover fiction
Mother-daughter coauthors Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham took the top of the hardcover fiction list with "The Thoroughbreds" (Little, Brown) in the week ending Sept. 19, per Publishers Weekly's Circana BookScan-powered rankings. Leigh Bardugo's "Dead Beat" (Flatiron), closing her Ninth House dark academia trilogy, debuted at #2, and Emily St. John Mandel's "Exit Party" also charted — a strong week for big-house fiction launches heading into fall.
NYT refreshes lists for Sept. 27
The New York Times published its updated best-seller lists for Sept. 27, 2026, covering fiction, nonfiction, paperback, children's, audiobook and graphic-book categories based on the prior week's sales. With the fall season's major titles now on sale, the coming weeks' NYT rankings will be the first real test of the autumn slate's commercial weight.
Fall 2026: celebrity memoirs define the season
Fall coverage describes the season as the "Super Bowl of Reading," with more than 12,000 books published weekly in the US and a slate heavy on celeb memoirs and romantasy (News-Tribune, Sept. 27). Upcoming memoirs flagged this month include titles from Ke Huy Quan, Gloria Steinem, Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Douglas and Judi Dench — the category that historically moves the biggest first-week units. A Joe Biden memoir is also among the season's most-watched titles per AP's fall preview.
Local view
Spanish-language media are tracking the autumn rentrée closely. El Cultural (El Español) published its most-sold books ranking for Sept. 25, tying it to the season's big titles including new novels from Almodóvar and Pérez-Reverte. El Mundo's La Lectura reported its weekly top 10 on Sept. 25, noting that for the first time in months the list is shifting as rentrée novelties enter.
Context & numbers
- PW's weekly list is compiled from Circana BookScan data covering independent and chain bookstores, wholesalers and distributors nationwide, for the week ended Sept. 19
- BookScan covers US print retail sales only; it excludes direct publisher/author sales and ebook data is reported monthly with a two-month delay
- For frame: PRH's 2025 revenue was €4.981 billion (+1.3%), with operating EBITDA of €704 million — the most recent full-year figures available
On the radar
- October 2026 releases to watch in Spain and beyond: first novels and returns from Almodóvar, Pérez-Reverte and Han Kang, per La Crónica del Henares
- Books-A-Million is planning chain-wide events for upcoming Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas titles — potential list-topping spikes later in the fall
- Watch next week's PW list to see whether "The Thoroughbreds" holds #1 or Bardugo's "Dead Beat" closes the gap
- Fall celebrity memoirs (Quan, Steinem, MacLachlan, Dench) carry rumored large advances; no seven-figure figures were confirmed in this week's coverage
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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