21 Best-Selling Books of All Time

by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

Cite This!

Close 

Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks article:

the Editors of Publications International, Ltd..  "21 Best-Selling Books of All Time"  14 September 2007.  HowStuffWorks.com.  28 May 2011.

Cite

Feedback

90

Writing a best seller is one thing, writing a book that sells more than 50 million copies is quite another. These authors tapped into something that led to record-breaking book sales. Are you an aspiring author wondering how many self-published tomes you need to sell to achieve the upper echelons of publishing fame? Check out our list of the 21 best-selling books of all time (as of 2007).

Title/Author	Copies Sold (millions)
1. The Bible	5,000 - 6,000
2. Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong by Mao Zedong	900
3. The Qur'an	800
4. Xinhua Zidian	400
5. The Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith, Jr.	120
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling	107
7. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie	100
8. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien	100
9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling	65
10. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown	65
11. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling	60
12. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger	60
13. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling	55
14. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling	55
15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling	55
16. Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace	50
17. Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning by Johanna Spyri	50
18. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho	50
19. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock	50
20. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry	50
21. The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley	50