The Fallon Book Club has crowned its winning title. But looking at the sales numbers, it seems all six contenders shared in the spoils.
Jimmy Fallon announced the summer edition of The Tonight Show’s recurring book club contest on Monday’s show, kicking off three days of voting that culminated in a winner being announced on Thursday’s show.
The book that received the most votes was The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, a mystery-thriller novel about a teen who disappears from her summer camp. In addition to being the book that Fallon will read alongside his fans (posting his progress on social media), the author will be invited to appear on the show.
The last installment of the Fallon Book Club was this past spring. Tracy Sierra’s Nightwatching was named the club’s official selection from an initial pool of 16 books. That book saw a huge increase in its Amazon Best Seller Rank over the course of Fallon featuring it on the show, skyrocketing from No. 20,143 to No. 46.
That sales bump seems to be hitting all six of the books that competed in this latest edition of the Fallon Book Club. LateNighter reviewed each of the six books’ Amazon rankings over the course of this week, and they’ve all seen surges in popularity.
Most of the books’ rankings on Amazon rose 30 to 45 percent in the 24 hours immediately following their initial reveal on Monday night’s broadcast. David Nicholls’ You Are Here saw a whooping 57 percent improvement, rising from No. 5,268 (the lowest-ranked of the six books) to No. 2,261.
Curiously, the winning book has actually seen the smallest jump in sales, presumably because it was already the most popular of the six books when the contest began. Since Monday night, The God of the Woods has risen from No. 28 to No. 22 as of 12 a.m. this morning. That placement could improve as Fallon’s announcement racks up more views online today, and The Tonight Show fans who don’t tune in live catch up on last night’s episode.
Beyond that, the book will likely benefit from the added publicity of Fallon’s social media updates and Moore’s eventual appearance on the show.
The God of the Woods was published by Riverhead Books earlier this month.
