“The Cuckoo’s Calling” to take No. 1 spot on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Book list

The reports for the sales of The Cuckoo’s Calling may be some of the strangest ever seen. Originally published in April, the book reportedly sold less than 1,000 copies, but once the news broke on July 14 that the novel’s author was none other than J.K. Rowling, and not military intelligence police officer Robert Galbraith, sales have skyrocketed beyond belief.

According to USA TODAY The Cuckoo’s Calling will place at the top of this Thursday’s USA TODAY Best-Selling Book list, but under the name of Robert Galbraith, and will account for both print and digital copies.

With such a surprising increase in sales, many bookstores were left without any copies of the book fairly quickly, prompting publisher Little, Brown to publish an additional 300,000 copies and begin shipping them out within days. As of July 23, however, Little, Brown has announced that they will publish 80,000 copies on top of that.

This lack of paper copies may act as an incentive for people to purchase the e-book version, though as Barnes & Noble Vice President Mary Amicucci said “The question is whether The Cuckoo’s Calling is … a book that readers will want to have on their shelves, for the quality of the writing, as a book to cherish and share.”

Michael Pietsch, Little, Brown publisher when The Casual Vacancy was published, comments that “many of Rowling’s fans wanted an actual copy to place next to the Potter collection on their bookshelves.”

If you are planning on purchasing, or have already purchased, a copy, which is your preferred format and why?