Letter


Issue 6,091 On the cover:


Natasha Brown,


photographed by Alice Zoo


How we manifest? It’s all about the books Philip Jones


Editor, The Bookseller T


The official charts This week’s number ones


his week’s issue of The Bookseller, our 6,091st, features more than 500 upcoming books. Across our lead author profile (see pp06-07), to the spotlight on wellbeing titles


(see p34), we have books ranging from the Children’s Book of the Month Huw Aaron’s Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob to Paperback’s top highlight There Are Rivers in the Sky, by Elif Shafak. It is a lot of books. Well done all! Since 1858, it has been The Bookseller’s job


to make sense of all these new releases, to bring our independent editorial and curatorial over- view to the market so that those in the business of finding readers for these talents can do so judiciously, knowing we have your back. You may notice, then, that this week’s edition


of the magazine is doing this job a little differ- ently. A rethink in where the printed magazine adds value, led to a redesign and a reshuffle of the order of the content. This week’s magazine begins with an interview with Assembly writer Natasha Brown, and our superb writer inter- views, commissioned by Alice O’Keeffe and Katie Fraser, will now open up the magazine each week, pushing authors to the fore.


Contents In this week’s magazine p46


There are other changes, too. Before we


planned the redesign, we did some research into how booksellers use the printed version. We found that the book previews were particu- larly well regarded, used to select stock and make key decisions around ordering, with book buyers using the material to figure out how a new title might land, with jackets a key indicator of positioning and expected publisher support. We also found that our audience wanted


more information around how the market was behaving, how the trade was changing, and what was selling through bookshops. Hence a revamped features section, under Tom Tivnan and Caroline Carpenter, in the heart of the magazine, as well as an expanded charts and data area at the back – written and compiled, as if by design, by independent bookseller Alex Call. For most of its 166 years, The Bookseller has


existed in just one format, either as a monthly or weekly publication. But today we manifest in many ways: from our website, to our show dailies, to our social media, to our events. Now, there is no longer one single version of The Bookseller, and depending on where and when you encounter us we may be doing differ- ent things. That is right: most of you reading this piece – which is about our printed product – will be doing so digitally. We should not pretend otherwise. To thrive and retain its place in such an environment, the printed magazine has to be distinct, equipped to use the virtues and advantages that print still offers around display and layout to present this books and market content in the most effective way. That books are now the lead into each issue


Since 1858, it has been The Bookseller’s job to bring our independent editorial and curatorial overview to the market


should also provide a guide for how we do everything else. Going into this role, I was told that our job was to help sell books. At our biggest event, The British Book Awards – now open for entries in its 35th year – we view the trade through the prism of its most successful books. This books first view is not unique to us either. At Frankfurt, Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp answered almost every question put to him with the response that it was “all about the books”. He was right. We are all about the books, too. And the people behind them. Have a happy and successful Christmas!


Books Author Profile: Natasha Brown 6 Books in the Media


8


Children’s Previews: March Paperback Preview: March Spotlight: Wellbeing


PRINT E-BOOK AUDIO Average selling price £9.91 Year/Year rise -0.3%


Features Editors of the Year


Company Spotlight: Leap Trade Interview: Di Speirs


38 42 44


10 20 34


Charts The Official UK Top 50 Fiction


Non-Fiction Children’s


Audio & Digital Market Spotlight


Classified Jobs in Books Recruitment


p38


46 48 49 50 51 52


54


05


Welcome


Comment


Leader


13.12.24 ISSN 0006-7539 2 4 > 9 770006 753 101 At the heart of the book trade since 1858. £5.95


Natasha Brown discusses her second novel Universality, in which the use of a gold bar as a weapon sets off a startling


chain of events PP06-07


Percy picks


Percival Everett tops the pile in the critics’


Books of the Year round-ups


Sky high Elif Shafak’s


There are Rivers in the Sky is the pick of March’s paperbacks


Ed’s notes The inaugural


Editor 30 uses Nielsen data to assess editors’ performance


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