Christian Retailing

‘The Shack’ reaches milestone Print Email
Written by Eric Tiansay   
Monday, 03 May 2010 03:54 PM America/New_York

Christian publishing sensation The Shack (Windblown Media/Hachette Book Group USA) has reached another milestone.

As of May 2, William P. Young's self-published novel has spent 100 consecutive weeks on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction best-seller list, with more than 50 weeks at No. 1, Hachette officials said. It has also been on Publishers Weekly and USA Today best-seller lists for the same period.

In addition, there are more than 12 million copies in print of The Shack--10 million in the United States and more than 2 million in foreign translations. To date, there have been 76 printings of the book in all formats, according to Windblown Media President Brad Cummings.

The Shack is being translated into 36 languages and has become a best-seller in several countries, including Brazil, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa and South Korea. Brazilian publisher Editora Sextante reported that it has printed more than 2 million copies of the book.

Windblown Media originally published The Shack in 2007 with a first printing of 10,000. Sales grew steadily by word of mouth that year, and by spring 2008, Windblown had sold more than 1 million copies on just $200 of marketing. In May 2008, Windblown entered into an arrangement with Hachette to distribute The Shack to meet the demand.