10 Bestselling Fiction Books for September/October - 2023

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

Fiction:
Voices of the Harlem Renaissance makes our bestsellers list for the 19th time! Only 7 other books have accomplished this feat.

Nonfiction:
Edited by Jericho Brown How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill; debuted on at #3 on our list and now tops the nonfiction list.

Children’s Books:
Jelani’s Key by D. Amari Jackson was the top selling book of all titles this period, largely on the strength of sales during a book signing at Sankofa Bookstore and Cafe on October 28th.

Poetry:
Poetry sales were topped by Life On Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith, the 12-year-old collection of poems won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

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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#3

Book cover of Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

Lone Women

by Victor Lavalle

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#8

Book cover of Our Gen by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

Our Gen

by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

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#10

Book cover of Perfect Peace: A Novel by Daniel Black

Perfect Peace

by Daniel Black

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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.


The Most Critically Acclaimed Books

Bestselling Books By Year May be Found Here

Our All-Time Bestselling Books May be Found Here