£6.8m
Top 10 big movers
1 Boldwood Value: £789,625, Change: 154.3% 2 Sourcebooks Value: £2,661,141, Change: 144.9% 3 V&A Value: £919,355, Change: 132.8% 4 David Fickling Value: £3,098,124, Change: 67.8% 5 Watkins Value: £878,839, Change: 30.1% 6 Hodder Value: £18,297,828, Change: 24.3% 7 Pitch Value: £540,712, Change: 23.4% 8 Phidal Value: £1,017,106, Change: 22.9% 9 Dark Skies Value: £728,649, Change: 22.8% 10 Insight Value: £1,609,635, Change: 21.7%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Nielsen BookScan, 26 weeks to 29th June 2024. Minimum TCM value £500,000
a Netflix-fuelled David Nicholls, another surge for Frank Herbert during the theatrical release of “Dune: Part Two”, some “New Year, New You” magic courtesy of “Deliciously” Ella Mills Woodward, while Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint Hodderscape had a string of subscription box-aided hits. The literary end helped HarperCollins’ 1% bump to £68.4m, as the group two’s biggest TCM earners this year have been Asako Yuzuki’s Butter (Fourth Estate, translated by Polly Barton) and Rebecca F Kuang’s Yellowface (The Borough Press). Spicy romantasy boosted Bloomsbury’s impressive 12.2% jump to £31.1m. Sarah J Maas’ House of Flame and Shadow has been the publishing event of 2024, with the American’s backlist geting a significant liſt in the process. Maas is responsible for Bloomsbury’s top three books of 2024 by value, and eight of its top 15; Maas combined with old hand J K Rowling to generate 28% of Bloomsbury’s entire TCM haul this year.
TheBookseller.com
Profile’s record half-year sales
Top 20 authors Don and on: Julia Donaldson remains tops
Tom Tivnan @tomtivnan J
ulia Donaldson is on course to claim an unprec- edented fifth straight year as the UK’s bestselling author, as she easily topped the writers’ league table at 2024’s halfway mark—and in the process
became just the second person to cross the £225m mark through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. The Gruffalo co-creator sold £6.7m through the TCM
in the first 26 weeks of this year, £800,000 greater than second-placed Sarah J Maas. Donaldson’s half-year is even more impressive in volume terms—she has sold just over 1.2 million copies, an incredible 725,000 units more than the next bestselling author (Fiona Watt). Her all- time sales now sit at £229.7m, second (a distant second, mind) to J K Rowling (£385.3m). As has consistently been the case with Donaldson,
rock-solid backlist and not bombastic bestsellers are key. Her top title of 2024 is The Baddies (Alison Green, illus- trated by Axel Scheffler) on nearly 56,000 copies, 81st in the overall chart. Her and Scheffler’s latest Tales from Acorn Wood title, Frog’s Day Out (Macmillan Children’s)— is her only number one of the year on the major charts; it held the Children’s top spot for one week in May when it shifted 4,149 units. (The second bestselling author of all-time, incredibly, has never had an overall UK number one). Yet Donaldson had 713 different editions record sales through BookScan this year. The only author with more is William Shakespeare (886), the closest living writer is James Patterson on 349. Thirty-nine of her titles have sold more than 10,000 copies in 2024; the runner-up is Dav Pilkey on 16. At this halfway point Maas has already shattered
her personal best for full-year TCM sales, as her £5.8m in the first 26 weeks is 18% up her entire 2023. Maas’
Author
1 Julia Donaldson 2 Sarah J Maas 3 J K Rowling
4 Nathan Anthony 5 Dav Pilkey
6 Richard Osman 7 Fiona Watt
8 Colleen Hoover 9 Jamie Smart 10 Jeff Kinney
11 James Patterson 12 Lee & Andrew Child 13 Rebecca Yarros 14 David Nicholls 15 Freida McFadden 16 David Walliams 17 Ana Huang 18 Lisa Jewell 19 Stephen King
20 Kay & Kate Allinson Volume
1,253,890 523,831 383,261 350,836 457,186 466,247 527,749 511,461 355,412 450,162 439,033 382,487 242,236 232,232 532,365 315,668 280,432 294,788 159,186 173,216
eagerly awaited third book in the Crescent City series, House of Flame and Shadow (Bloomsbury), shifted 44,761 copies in its launch week—by far the best week for an adult hardback fiction of 2024, and the third- fastest-selling Science Fiction & Fantasy title since records began. Pilkey also bags a
personal halfway best in nabbing fifth place. His latest Dog Man comic, The Scarlet Shredder (Scholastic), shifted 103,000 units, the top kids’ title that was not on the 2024 World Book Day tranche. Fellow children’s graphic novelist Jamie Smart was also in the top 10 on £2.8m; Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman is just outside this chart at 31st (£1.1m). It’s been a tough year for non-fiction—BookScan’s
JULIA DONALDSON
Adult Non-Fiction: Trade and Specialist categories combined for £351.1m, a 6.8% year-on-year slump. That is reflected in Nathan Anthony and Kay and Kate Allinson being the only authors in the top 20 who do not write children’s or adult fiction. Fourth-placed Anthony’s Bored of Lunch Healthy Slow Cooker: Even Easier and Bored of Lunch Healthy Air Fryer: 30 Minute Meals (both Ebury) notched a brace of overall number ones apiece this year, but the Northern Irishman’s £3.5m was 34% off his breakout first half of 2023.
Value
£6,651,430 £5,845,068 £3,801,541 £3,489,194 £3,338,501 £3,048,013 £3,029,357 £3,022,985 £2,770,951 £2,760,220 £2,568,371 £2,514,505 £2,289,356 £2,276,971 £2,058,781 £2,022,887 £1,899,254 £1,750,283 £1,743,903 £1,740,661
Nielsen BookScan, 26 weeks ending 29th June 2024. Includes co-authors and pseudonyms
Top authors in translation
1 2 3
Kentaro Miura £895,343
Asako Yuzuki £827,277
Toshikazu
Kawaguchi £653,558
4 5
Eiichiro Oda £647,829
Gege Akutami £669,392
09
© Steve Ullathorne
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