Charts Global bestsellers
The good-news story of a print resurgence in many English-speaking
territories, notably growth in Ireland, UK and the US, conceals a more nuanced picture elsewhere—but a trio of British women writers are staples in bestseller lists across the globe. Kiera O’Brien reports
Girls on I
T’S J K ROWLING’s world, and we’re just living in it. The Harry Poter author appears in all nine featured
Nielsen territories’ top 10 author rank- ings, topping seven of them. Not only was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child unquestionably the world’s biggest- selling book of 2016, in most territo- ries Rowling earned more than double the amount of the runner-up author. Jeff Kinney is the next most consist- ent, appearing in eight of the nine countries’ author top 10s. Only the UK snubs him (sorry, Jeff)—and even then, he’s still in 11th place, losing out to Roald Dahl by just £17,466. He hits a high of third place in both his native US—shiſting 2.95 million books in the 52 weeks to 11th February 2016—and in South Africa, where he pulled in a tidy ZAR11.3m (£7m). Jojo Moyes is the most frequent adult fiction author to appear, racking up top 10 rankings in five territories— and in Brazil, she even managed to out-earn Rowling, a feat only achieved across all territories by Moyes and a cartoon Italian mouse (curiously, in
12
Spain). Moyes’ Me Before You duol- ogy (soon to be a trilogy) seems to work particularly well in translation; both titles (plus a Me Before You film tie-in) hit the top 10 in Brazil, with the original 2012 weepie also placing seventh in Italy. It should be noted the Me Before You film adaptation did especially well in Brazil, with £14m in box office takings. Only UK, US and Germany’s cinemagoers bought more tickets.
Paula Hawkins scores four top 10 rankings—the US, UK, Ireland and Australia. Also boosted by a block- buster film adaptation, The Girl on the Train features in six of the Nielsen territories’ top 10s. Again, there is a correlation between the takings at the box office and bookshops’ tills— Australians spent nearly £10m on going to see “The Girl on the Train” in 2016, and 117,605 of them bought the book, too.
Around the world, print’s fortunes were mixed. The UK enjoyed a second consecutive year of growth in both volume and value, while Ireland rock-
tour
eted 8.9% in value year on year. The US inched up 1.15% in volume, but India put them all to shame, with a blistering 37% rise in value terms, to 5.6bn rupees. Australia had the smallest decline percentage-wise in value, falling just AUD11m year on year—but it suffered a 5% drop in volume, shiſting nearly three million fewer books than in 2015. Spain’s records began in 2016 (hence the n/a comparisons, right), but Italy’s TCM volume hit an all-time low of 81.9 million books sold, 2.4% down on 2015.
Pictured from left, Brits J K Rowling, Jojo Moyes and Paula Hawkins all featured in more than three countries’ top 10 authors—only one other writer (Jeff Kinney, above, in eight) did so
South Africa, like Australia, was hit harder in volume than in value, declining 8.6% in volume and 1.6% in value. To be fair, 2015 was a block- buster year for the Rainbow Nation—it sold more than 10 million books for the first time since 2011, while 2016 was the second year running the print market earned more than ZAR1.5bn (£96m). But Brazil suffered worst of all, dropping 9.7% in volume on 2015 (though it was up 0.5% on 2014’s total) and dropping 2.1% in value. ×
14th March 2017
Photography: Kate Neal, Mary McCartney, Abrams
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48