The Top YA Books On Amazon In 2016: A State-By-State Breakdown
I’m a data nerd. Things that can be counted and explored via number,s especially when it comes to something that’s of an art form, really gets me excited. I know it’s nearly impossible to draw conclusions from data without having run a hefty series of statistical analyses and eliminating all potential confounding factors.
But what I do know is: you can discover some interesting connections.
So when the opportunity to explore numbers and YA lit presents itself, I find it impossible not to poke around. In this case, I was curious what books published last year were the most popular books sold in each of the 50 United States on Amazon. The data, which I received from Amazon, not only provided a really interesting insight into book sales from last year, but it also provided a glimpse into the best selling 2016 YA books from US territories. Those, I think, might be even more interesting than what will be seen on a state-by-state level.
Before diving into the winners, take a moment and guess which titles you might suspect were the most popular last year. The books in this data set were published in 2016, too, so the always-popular books and those which saw big pushes due to adaptations — titles like The Fault in Our Stars and 13 Reasons Why and If I Stay — aren’t included in this round up.
Got your picks? Let’s see if you’ve come close to guessing.
Alabama: Liked: Whose Approval Are You Living For? by Kari Kampakis
Alaska: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Arizona: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Arkansas The Crown by Kiera Cass
California: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Colorado: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Connecticut: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Deleware: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Florida: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Georgia: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Hawaii: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Idaho: The Crown by Kiera Cass
The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Indiana: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Iowa: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Kansas: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Kentucky: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Louisiana: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Maine: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Maryland: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Massachusetts: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Michigan: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Minnesota: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Mississippi: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Missouri: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Montana: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Nebraska: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Nevada: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
New Hampshire: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
New Jersey: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
New Mexico: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
New York: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
North Carolina: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
North Dakota: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Ohio: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Oklahoma: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Oregon: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Pennsylvania: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Rhode Island: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
South Carolina: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
South Dakota: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Tennessee: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Texas: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Utah: The Crown by Kiera Cass
Vermont: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Virginia: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
District of Columbia: Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky
Washington: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
West Virginia: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Wisconsin: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Wyoming: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
So last year’s biggest seller across the 50 states (and the District of Columbia)? The Last Star by Rick Yancey. Runner up was The Crown by Kiera Cass. Both of those books were part of a series and not the beginning entry. The two rogue titles, Liked and Women In Science, are both nonfiction titles and about as different from Yancey and Cass’s books as possible.
Let’s not stop there, though. Things become a little more interesting when the US territories and other affiliated locations with US postal codes (i.e., military) are taken into account, as they add a range of very different titles to the mix.
US Armed Forces, America: The Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
US Armed Forces, Europe: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
US Armed Forces, Pacific: The Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
Micronesia: The Silent Songbird by Melanie Dickerson
Guam: The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Northern Mariana Islands: Cracking The AP English Literature and Composition Exam from The Princeton Review
Puerto Rico: The Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
Palau: Star Wars Ahsoka by EK Johnston
US Virgin Islands: Can I Kiss You? by Michael J Domitrz
So anything catch you by surprise? Are there titles you expected to see but didn’t? I won’t lie: I’m surprised there weren’t more instances of AP study guides or similar books cracking the list.
Perhaps the most interesting thing for me is seeing how many of the best sellers here repeated state-by-state…and how many of the books that sold really well last year on other lists didn’t crack the Amazon top seller.
