25 Bestselling Fiction Books for Full Year - 2021

AALBC’s Bestselling Book SealOur bestsellers list has been published continuously since 1998. Learn More ▶

Fiction: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance: Originally Published as The New Negro an Interpretation edited by Alain Locke and featuring a new introduction by AALBC’s Troy Johnson was the #1 fiction book for 2021. Voices, which was originally published almost 100 years ago, benefited from strong sales because it is an excellent treatment of The New Negro an Interpretation and we have focused on providing sales and distribution through independent channels.

Nonfiction: Sales of So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo surged immediately after the cruel murder of George Floyd. Readers, of all backgrounds, were anxious to understand the nature of racism how they could do something about it. More importantly, readers wanted to buy So You Want to Talk About Race, and similar title’s, from independent Black-owned booksellers. Sales have remained strong for these books more than a year later.

Children’s Books: Children’s books has been the top-selling category of books the past two years, which is really remarkable given the strength of nonfiction book sales (a close second). Born on the Water: The 1619 Project written by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson, and wonderfully illustrated by Nikkolas Smith, enjoyed a tremendous amount of support from virtually the entire bookselling community.

Poetry: Vice: New and Selected Poems by Ai Ogawa won a National Book Award in 1999, the year it was first published. Given the strength of the sales of Amanda Gorman’s Call Us What We Carry, the 22-year-old Vice topping all other poetry book sales is impressive.

View a printer-friendly version and a collage of the book covers. Also, check out links to more great books. Enjoy

#1

Book cover of Voices of the Harlem Renaissance: Originally Published as The New Negro an Interpretation by Alain Locke and Introduction by Troy Johnson

Voices of the Harlem Renaissance

by Alain Locke and Introduction by Troy Johnson

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#10

Book cover of Blood Grove by Walter Mosley

Blood Grove

by Walter Mosley

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#11

Book cover of The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

The Prophets

by Robert Jones, et al.

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#13

Book cover of His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

His Only Wife

by Peace Adzo Medie

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#14

Book cover of A Glimmer of Death by Valerie Wilson Wesley

A Glimmer of Death

by Valerie Wilson Wesley

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#17

Book cover of The Minister Primarily by John Oliver Killens

The Minister Primarily

by John Oliver Killens

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#18

Book cover of Palmares by Gayl Jones

Palmares

by Gayl Jones

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#21

Book cover of Awaken by Timothy George

Awaken

by Timothy George

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#22

Book cover of While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery

While Justice Sleeps

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery

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#24

Book cover of Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston and M. Genevieve West (editor)

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick

by Zora Neale Hurston and M. Genevieve West (editor)

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#25

Book cover of Captain Blackman by John A. Williams

Captain Blackman

by John A. Williams

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More About our Bestsellers List


You will learn about books selling well, in the Black community, that may never show up on lists published by corporate entities. Spread the word about our list; don’t let one or two lists, which we don’t control, determine which books are important.

We collect our bestselling titles from all our sales channels. The majority of our sales come from this website and our in-person events. We also include sales generated through our affiliate relationships, including Bookshop.org, Libro.fm (audiobooks), Black History 365 Education, and Amazon.com*.

We aggregate all formats of a book sold (print, ebook, and audio) into one format, usually the most popular print format

*For a few years, we actively boycotted Amazon but have discontinued this practice, as many of our authors have made their books exclusively available from Amazon. While we discourage giving Amazon the exclusive right to sell a book, we do not want this to be a reason to exclude an author from our site. Amazon also has an effective monopoly on eBooks and out-of-print books, which we highlight on this site.


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