DATA


The Bestseller Charts Analysis


Speaking of which, David


Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue was right up book buyers’ streets, débuting in the Original Fiction number one and scoring the author’s first pole position in the category chart in a decade.


Correction Nielsen Book has removed 400 copies of Mark Dawson’s The Cleaner from its sales from the week ending 4th July, aſter the author admited


Publisher revenues HarperCollins


Penguin


Pan Macmillan S&S


Hodder


Bloomsbury Orion


Cornerstone Ebury


Little, Brown


Children’s: Pre-school Title


1 The Smeds and the Smoos 2 Draw With Rob 3 Oi Puppies!


4 Giraffes Can’t Dance


5 Zog and the Flying Doctors 6 The Tiger Who Came to Tea 7 While We Can’t Hug 8 Dear Zoo


9 The Wonky Donkey


10 Oh, The Places You’ll Go! 11 Where’s Spot? 12 Here We Are 13 The Ugly Five


14 What the Ladybird Heard... 15 The Highway Rat 16 The Dinky Donkey


19 Tiddler


£1.68m £1.53m £1.02m £651k £596k £488k £486k £463k £430k £374k


purchasing the copies himself in order to sell on to overseas readers. Nielsen, which originally thought the sales were a result of a virtual signing, said it regarded the situation as an innocent error. “We have robust processes in place to make sure the chart is as accurate as possible while having the best coverage... We apologise that on this occasion we misunderstood the intentions of this sales transaction.”





Adult Fiction has thrived prior to and throughout the lockdown, but with bookshops’ doors closed, lesser- known authors were sidelined


Kiera O’Brien @kieraobrien Author; Illustrator Imprint


Julia Donaldson; Axel Scheffler Alison Green 1407196657 £3.96 Rob Biddulph HarperCollins


0008419110


Kes Gray; Jim Field Hodder Children’s 1444937367 Giles Andreae; Guy Parker-Rees Orchard


0007215997


Julia Donaldson; Axel Scheffler Alison Green 1407173504 £4.22 Judith Kerr HarperCollins


0230747722 1407195575 0007413577 0723263661 0008266165


1529023145


Eoin McLaughlin; Polly Dunbar Faber & Faber 0571365609 £5.38 Rod Campbell Macmillan Craig Smith; Katz Cowley Scholastic Dr Seuss HarperCollins Eric Hill Warne Oliver Jeffers HarperCollins


Julia Donaldson; Axel Scheffler Alison Green 1407184630 £4.20 Donaldson; Monks Macmillan


Julia Donaldson; Axel Scheffler Alison Green 1407170732 £4.10 Craig Smith; Katz Cowley Scholastic


17 Sticker Dolly Dressing Mermaids Fiona Watt; Rachel Wells Usborne 18 Zog


1407198514 1474973434


Julia Donaldson; Axel Scheffler Alison Green 1407170763 £4.23 Julia Donaldson; Axel Scheffler Alison Green 1407170756 £4.91


Children’s & YA Fiction Title


1 The World’s Worst Parents Slime


2 


4 The Ballad of Songbirds... 5 Harry... Philosopher’s Stone


20 We’re Going on a Treasure Hunt Martha Mumford; Laura Huges Bloomsbury 1408893395 £4.01


ISBN (+978) ASP Volume 5,467 3,606 2,850 2,223 2,221 2,164 2,129 2,093 1,954 1,912 1,858 1,724 1,701 1,634 1,627 1,613 1,608 1,571 1,550 1,516


£5.76 £4.77


1841215655 £4.12 £4.23


£4.31 £4.14 £5.45 £4.91


£10.84 £7.29


£4.23 £3.63


A


dult Fiction is likely the most lockdown-proof genre, with 41% of


respondents to a Nielsen survey reading more books while self- isolating. However, the Fiction Heatseekers chart, which tracks titles written by authors who have yet to chart in the Top 50, saw little movement during lockdown— but since bookshops re-opened, the plucky up-and-comers of fiction have been given a new lease of life. In the first quarter of 2020,


Author; Illustrator Imprint


David Walliams; Tony Ross HarperCollins David Walliams; Tony Ross HarperCollins


3 The Boy at the Back of the Class Onjali Q Rauf Orion Children’s Suzanne Collins Scholastic J K Rowling Bloomsbury


6 The Beast of Buckingham Palace David Walliams; Tony Ross HarperCollins 7 Diary of an Awesome Friendly... Jeff Kinney Puffin 8 The Ice Monster


9 Mr Dog and the Rabbit Habit 10 The Explorer 11 Bad Dad


12 Harry... Chamber of Secrets 13 The World’s Worst Teachers 14 The Midnight Gang 15 The Meltdown


16 The Wild Way Home 17 Wonder


18 The Boy Who Grew Dragons 19 Wrecking Ball


20 Harry... Prisoner of Azkaban 18 24th July 2020


David Walliams; Tony Ross HarperCollins Ben Fogle & Steve Cole HC Children’s Katherine Rundell Bloomsbury... David Walliams; Tony Ross HC Children’s J K Rowling Bloomsbury David Walliams; Tony Ross HarperCollins David Walliams; Tony Ross HC Children’s Jeff Kinney Puffin


Sophie Kirtley Bloomsbury... R J Palacio Corgi Children’s Andy Shepherd Piccadilly Press Jeff Kinney Puffin J K Rowling Bloomsbury


ISBN (+978) ASP Volume 0008305796 £7.22 0008342586 £6.70 1510105010 0702300172 1408855652


£5.72


£11.03 £4.85


0008262174 £7.24 0241405703


£4.53


0008164706 £4.45 0008306366 1408882191


£3.57 £6.03


0008164669 £4.15 1408855669


£4.44


0008305789 £8.37 0008164621 £4.09 0241389317 1526616289 0552565974 1848126497 0241396636 1408855676


£4.53 £5.65 £4.53 £5.41 £7.83 £4.51


32,013 6,197 3,210 3,202 2,426 2,340 2,317 2,268 2,098 2,053 1,896 1,753 1,746 1,724 1,627 1,539 1,497 1,469 1,455 1,422


Fiction sales were up 1% in volume—and an eye-popping 7.3% in value. In its first three weeks on sale, Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light sold 148,204 copies (for £2.3m), boosting the catego- ry’s value to £72.4m. No hardback fiction title hit the 2019 Q1 top 20. In the last week of trading before bookshops’ enforced closure (the last week of Q1), fiction titles seemed to be as high as toilet paper on panic-buyers’ lists and, luckily, more plentifully available. That week the category spiked 32% in volume year on year, in a seven-day period that was 4.4% down overall (albeit up against a huge 2019 week, when Pinch of Nom was released). It was the first time since July 2018 that Fiction


outsold Non-Fiction—and by 17%. Across lockdown, several fiction


hits made themselves heard: Sally Rooney’s BBC-boosted Normal People, Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker winner Girl, Woman, Other and Peter May’s published-at-the- speed-of-light Lockdown soared


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