SECTOR ANALYSIS
its own judges gave it, with sales leaping to the highest single week for any winner since records began directly following the announcement. It has gone on to become the bestsell- ing winner since Hilary Mantel’s 2012 recipient Bring Up the Bodies, at a quarter of a million copies sold. (Although technically now The Testaments has out-sold it.)
Keeping up with Jones The Women’s Prize was also well- represented, with Tayari Jones’ winner An American Marriage in 11th place, and 2019 shortlistees Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls, Madeline Miller’s Circe and Diana Evans’ Ordinary People charting. Sarah Moss’ longlisted Ghost Wall was also in the mix, in 44th place.
The Testaments may be the first Booker winner to sell the bulk of its copies before winning—it shifted 191,093 units before the announcement
SALLY ROONEY TOPS THE CHART WITH HER SECOND NOVEL, AND HAS THREE EDITIONS IN THE TOP 20
surprise, as The Testaments immedi- ately became the biggest-selling hard- back fiction title of the year upon its release, selling 103,177 copies through the BookScan TCM as a whole. The Handmaid’s Tale sequel probably also over-indexed through high- street bookshops and particularly indie ones, with die-hard Atwood fans (At-ficionados? Handmaidens?) more likely to buy their copy in person than order it off Amazon (even if it was sending them out early). The Handmaid’s Tale, whose 1996 edition was boosted 150% in volume TCM-wide in the week of The Testaments’ publication, also hit the indie chart, in 26th place.
0
Number of times Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow has charted in the weekly Top 50, despite having sold almost 200,000 copies to date
460%
Increase in volume sales of Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other in the seven weeks following its Man Booker Prize triumph
Prize-winners also perform strongly among independents and winning the Booker Prize can’t have hurt The Testaments’ ranking. Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other zipped into the indie top 50, into 44th place. In the seven weeks aſter the Booker announcement, it increased by 460% in volume. In contrast, The Testaments may be the first Booker winner to sell the bulk of its copies before winning—it shiſted 191,093 units before the announcement, and has only shiſted a further 67,083 aſter. Anna Burns’ Milkman, the 2018 Booker winner, also delivered, ranking sixth. The title defied the “challenging” label
Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz was by the some way the biggest seller of 2019’s Adult Fiction category through the TCM as a whole, but can only claim seventh among the indies, with its fiction runner-up Liane Moriart’s Nine Perfect Strangers charting 36th. Interestingly, the W H Smith Richard & Judy Book Club seems to bear less weight in the indie chart than it does TCM-wide, while the Waterstones Book of the Month line-up counts for more. Of course, Normal People was the retailer’s Book of the Year in 2018, but there is also Amor Towles’ A Gentleman
in Moscow, perhaps the slowest- burning bestseller ever. In total, it’s sold nearly 200,000 copies without ever charting in the weekly Top 50. The historical fiction title spent two months as a Waterstones Book of the Month back in 2017, and has sold selling consistently well since. Indies clearly caught on, with A Gentleman in Moscow charting an impressive 10th, two years aſter publication.
Trendwatch Award- winning fiction
272,251 units
The Testaments Margaret Atwood Chatto
263,572 units
Normal People Sally Rooney Faber
242,212 units
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman HarperCollins
110,343 units
Milkman Anna Burns Faber
94,775 units
An American Marriage Tayari Jones Oneworld
*Sales are across all editions through the entire TCM.
February 2020–July 2020 07
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