also a published children’s author: her middle-grade novel Voyage of the Sparrowhawk (Faber) won this year’s Costa Children’s Book Award. “If foreign publishers are taking fewer chances, you want your book to have the best popular chance of success.”


Overseas companies not only look at the manuscript itself, but wait to see sales figures from the UK, as well as reviews and any prize recognition. Having a film deal in place, as happened with A F Steadman’s Skandar and the Unicorn Thief—the hot book of the Frankfurt 2020 season, repped by RCW’s Sam Copeland—will also make overseas publishing deals happen more quickly, although that is rare. Farrant adds: “But even if there is film or TV atached, there is again more caution. They want to know who it has been sold to, where it will be distributed... let’s see if it will get made.” The pandemic has also meant that publishers have pushed back books from 2020, and as a consequence “nobody is in


a rush to fill their lists anymore. Their lists are full. They are looking at books for 2022 and 2023, so they are not in a rush.”


When it comes to trends, there is no clear patern. “What I will say is that the same old-fashioned values


If a book is going to sell, it doesn’t have to be just good, but also fresh and original and different. It’s not about jumping on a bandwagon


A F STEADMAN’S FIRST NOVEL WAS THE HOT BOOK OF FRANKFURT 2020


apply. If a book is going to sell, it doesn’t have to just be good, but also fresh and original and different. Could this book only have been writen by one person? Does it have the spark of talent and individualit? That is what continues to sell, and that’s heartening. It’s not about jumping on a bandwagon. “Also, I’ve spoken to people in rights who say they continue to meet their target but with older titles. So as a scout, I’m keeping an eye on backlists and those sales figures.”


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*42 editions per year of The Bookseller magazine, delivered to your door or inbox TheBookseller.com 23


EEK


Te cy’s


y y


% this pite ed


ing in


mber olers


Children's News Summer Reading Challenge


oolers’ progress offers hope as er Reading Challenge figures falter


CONTEXT OF FUNDING CUTS


SAID THIS YEAR’S FIGURES WERE PLEASING IN THE


THE READING AGENCY


a sticker for each book read. If they read six books, they officially completed the chal- lenge and received a special, additional sticker. This year, 58% of participants (390,828) reached the end goal. In addition, 83,419 children joined a library as a new member, and 389,728 kids atended library events.


Hack attack


The agency again ran Reading Hack—the scheme of training young people aged 12–24 to help run the challenge, launched in 2014 thanks to funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation—and this year nearly 7,000 volunteers signed up. They are recruited from schools and youth groups, and many return year aſter year to help younger children over the summer break, said Sarrag. “They get a taste of the working


mber of children articipated in this Summer Reading ll by more than 8% t The Reading Agency ease in the number of ers who took part and ement in the boy/girl rticipants.


, 671,000 children aged


ch she s. “We can’t ignore the fact t libraries are taking a huge hit m the cuts that are happening


ne S mer Reading Challenge, The Reading Agency was ly pleased” with the results year, despite the 8% decline, ch she atributed to budget the fact


0t No ember 2018201 0th Novembe h Nove ve ber 8 18


took part in the main e, a fall of 8.2% year on me 28,074 under-fours p to the pre-school ge, up 3.19% on last year’s d a huge increase on 2013, he pre-school challenge ed with around 6,500 ipants. ne Sarrag, director of the Challenge,


8.2%


Year on year fall in the overall number of participants in this year’s Summer Reading Challenge


45%


Of participants were boys, a share up 1% on the previous year’s figure


21.05.21


to services across the country. A lot of budget cuts hit really hard this year and libraries are chang- ing the way they deliver services: they are using


ISSN 0006-7539 At the heart of publishing since 1858. h are using more volunteers,


their opening hours are being reduced and some are moving to a self-service model,” she said. “There is less capacit in the bli


public library sy The split of


The split library system.” those takini g par part


A lot of budget cuts hit really hard this year and libraries are changing... Tere is less capacity in the public library system Anne Sarrag, director,


Summer Reading Challenge


in gender terms is also moving towards a more equal basis: 45% of participants in 2018 were boys, up from 44% last year, and Sarrag said this year’s theme, Mischief Makers (with the Beano), helped to get boys onside.


o


“Librarians adored the theme and it worked with boys, their dads and their granddads. It was Beano revamped for a new generation. The boys’ completion rate went up a few percentage points, too.” To take part in the challenge children could read any book borrowed from the library, h t be fiction, non-


£5.95 b


whether that be fiction, fiction, poetry, picture books or audiobook


s, an or audiobooks, and they received


environment and can use it as work experience, or part of their Duke of Edinburgh awards. We don’t just want bookworms and very literate people to take part, it’s for everyone.”


The agency also conducted a


survey of libraries, and 98% said they wanted to take part again in 2019. “I am genuinely touched by the enthusiasm librarians have for the challenge in difficult times,” said Sarrag. “Because they are confident about wanting to take part, they probably have funding in place.” The Reading Agency could do more to work with libraries in terms of training staff and volunteers, and wants to work more closely with schools and make sure they understand the benefits of pupils participating in the Summer Reading Challenge during the school holidays, she added.


Next year is the 20th anni-


TheBookseller.com math


versary of the Summer Reading Challenge and theme will be Space Chase, inspired by the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing. The agency is currently looking at opportuni- ties to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.


PICTURED ABOVE: ALISON UTTLEY, CREATOR OF THE LITTLE GREY RABBIT SERIES AND BEACONSFIELD RESIDENT, IS TO JOIN ENID BLYTON IN HAVING A PLAQUE IN THE TOWN


 1 11 12


In memoriam Beaconsfield to honour former resident Uttley with plaque following local society campaign


Uttley didn’t like [fellow Beaconsfield B


uckinghamshire town Beaconsfield will next month unveil a plaque


dedicated to children’s author and former resident Alison Uttley. Kari Dorme of Te Beaconsfield


Society committee, who campaigned for the plaque to be installed, said she felt “very strongly” that Uttley, whose chil- dren’s books includeA Traveller in Time, Te Country Child and the Little Grey Rabbit series, had been forgotten by the town. Uttley moved to Beaconsfield in


1938 when she was 54, 11 years after the first Little Grey Rabbit title, Te Squirrel, the Hare and the Little Grey Rabbit, was published by Heinemann. Her house, Tackers, is still standing and she is buried in the grounds of Penn’s Holy Trinity CofE Church, where her headstone bears the epitaph “Spinner of Tales”. Dorme said she wanted to


celebrate Uttley partly because Te Beaconsfield Society had unveiled a plaque dedicated to another local children’s author, Enid Blyton, in 2013. Uttley didn’t like Blyton, calling her a “vulgar, curled woman”,


resident] Enid Blyton, calling her a ‘vulgar, curled woman’, but


both authors became millionaires from their books


but both authors became millionaires from their books in their lifetimes, said Dorme. “Tey were great rivals. Tey lived in Beaconsfield at the same time (1938 onwards). Enid Blyton died in 1968 and Alison, who was older, outlived her and died in 1976.” Te plaque is being paid for by


Te Beaconsfield Society and will be unveiled in the Beaconsfield Town Council garden, near Enid Blyton’s plaque, on Uttley’s birth- day: 17th December. Uttley has sold 19,152 books


through Nielsen BookScan since records began in 1998, worth £124,004 in value terms. Several of her books are still in print: A Traveller in Time is available from Puffin (the 2007 edition has sold 8,353 copies to date through the TCM), and Templar publishes the Little Grey Rabbit series.


 m WEEK ON WEEKEK O W


After a lengthy and incredibly consistent run in the print charts, Adam Kay’s junior doctor memoir finally tops the pile, displacing Deliciously Elllla


Kiera O'Brien @kieraobrien


I 


n its 20th week in the chart, Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt leapt into the Official UK


t


Top 50 number one spot for the first time, selling 17,491 copies— its highest single-week volume to date. Despite its long tenure in the charts, the junior doctor memoir has kept its momentum. Its August volume was 34% higher than its June equivalent, and last week it jumped 10% week on week. Impressively, it has never dipped below 10,000 copies sold per week (bar its first three days on sale) and, since mid-July, has doggedly shiſted at least 15,000 units weekly. It’s not oſten a title has such h number


It s not


a long build-up to the number one spot, and when it does, it’s usually an of-the-moment fiction


7th September 2018


3  Elea 4  Snap 5  Origin


6  The Chalk Man 7  Life of Crime


8  Jamie Cooks Italy 9  Deliciously Ella...


11  The Fall of Gondolin 12  End Game


13  I’ll Keep You Safe 14  Sapiens


15  The Wife Between Us 16  Fairytale 17  The Break


18  The Couple Next Door 19  Last Letter Home 20  Mythos


21  Into the Water


22  Three Things About Elsie 23  The Rooster Bar


24  The Accidental Further... 25  The People vs Alex Cross 26  Surprise Me 27  Damaged


28  The Midnight Line


30  Perfect Silence 31  Normal People


Dan Brown C J Tudor


Jamie Oliver Ella Mills


Penguin


14


10  21 Lessons for the 21st Century Yuval Noah Harari Jonathan Cape J R R Tolkien


David Baldacci Pan Peter May


Yuval Noah Harari Vintage Hendricks & Pekkanen Pan Danielle Steel Pan Marian Keyes Penguin Shari Lapena Corgi Rachel Hore Stephen Fry


Kimberley Chambers HarperCollins 0008144760 17,305 Michael Joseph 0718187736 48,789 Yellow Kite 1473639218 1787330672


26,579 8,843


HarperCollins 0008302757 7,985 1447277415 74,948 69,824


riverrun 1784294977 0099590088


704,700


1509842834 43,732 1509800575 38,006 1405918756


0552173148 508,451


Simon & Schuster 1471156960 53,628 Penguin


Paula Hawkins Black Swan Joanna Cannon Borough Press John Grisham Hodder


Jonas Jonasson Fourth Estate James Patterson Arrow Sophie Kinsella Black Swan Martina Cole Headline Lee Child


29  The World’s Worst Children 3 D Walliams & T Ross Helen Fields


32  Where the Light Gets In 33  Do Not Disturb


34  Why Mummy Swears


35  As the Sun Breaks Through 36  Munich 37  Lullaby


38  The Love Letter 39  A Mother’s Courage


40  Dog Man 5: Lord of the Fleas 41  The Tattooist of Auschwitz 42  The Greek Escape


43  The 104-Storey Treehouse 44  Murder Mile


45  A Stranger in the House 46  Nadiya’s Family Favourites 47  Homo Deus


50  Peppa’s Magical Unicorn


1405934138 1784162245 0008196943 1473616998 0008275570 1784753634 1784160432 1472201096


Bantam 0857503619 HarperCollins 0008304591 Avon


Sally Rooney Faber & Faber Lucy Dillon


Gill Sims Ellie Dean


Claire Douglas Michael Joseph HarperCollins Arrow


Robert Harris Arrow


Leila Slimani Faber & Faber Lucinda Riley Pan Dilly Court Dav Pilkey


Arrow Scholastic


Heather Morris Zaffre Pan


Karen Swan


A Griffiths & T Denton Macmillan Lynda La Plante Zaffre Shari Lapena Corgi


48  Wedding Bells for Land Girls 49  Oxford English Mini Dictionary - -


book sales through around 6,


Nadiya Hussain Michael Joseph Yuval Noah Harari Vintage Jenny Holmes Corgi OUP


Week ending 1st September 2018. Key New Up Same Down s ot


Black Swan 1784162092 0718187903


214,212 45,288


152,272 28,820 65,359


125,478 123,971 295,405 274,947


0008275174 9,224 0571334643


5,231


26,063 29,916


0008284213 49,522 1784758127 1784751852 0571337545


10,051


117,701 37,540


1509825042 54,918 1784752569 0545935173 1785763649


16,989 4,122


79,044


1509838110 51,039 1509833771 11,909 1785764660


0552173155 90,400 0241348994 1784703936


Ladybird 0241353783 34,351 303,991


0552173674 6,642 0199640966 170,803 30,521


Unless otherwise stated, charts use data from Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market, representing print h around 6,500 retailers. Any title discounted by more than 74.5% is ineligible for inclusion.


6,758 41,994 199,452


8,811 8,729 8,386 7,808 6,849 6,421 6,173 6,148 6,144 6,095 5,979 5,956 5,773 5,716 5,649 5,588 5,457 5,423 5,260 5,247 5,184 5,165 5,115 4,902 4,847 4,615 4,468 4,240 4,177 4,137 3,998 3,788 3,515 3,507 3,498 3,458 3,457 3,447 3,443 3,437 3,435 3,432 3,427


ADAM KAY TOPS THE CHARTS AFTER SPENDING SEVEN WEEKS IN THE TOP TRIO


hit that has spread by word of mouth. Emma Healey’s Elizabeth is Missing spent seven weeks in g the chart before hiting the overall number one spot in 2015, and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train clocked up 11 weeks in the list before reaching its destination in late March 2015, displaying a similar weekly consistency to This is Going to Hurt. However, while t five months from publication to top spot probably felt


longer than a weekend A&E shiſt to Adam Kay, spare a thought for John Green: The Fault in Our Stars’ original edition, released s in January 2013, didn’t hit the summit until June 2014. This is Going to Hurt, which t also recently racked up a string of Weekly E-Book Ranking number ones, has now spent a total of 19 non- consecutive weeks as the Paperback Non-fiction leader, a run disturbed


only when Anthony McCarten’s Darkest Hour swiped the pole in r June. Since 2010, only Joe Wicks’ Lean in 15 and Millie Marota’s


5


colouring book Animal Kingdom have spent longer in the category chart’s top spot. Ken Follet’s A Column of Continues overleaf 


ou post by Jojo Moyes Sti the sixth new title this year to top the rank g its first week in the chart, due toEleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’s 14-week run across the spring and the “long tails” of recent hits Te Tattooist of Auschwitz and Tis is Going to Hurt. Perfect Silence secures publisher Avon its sixth e-book number one, a total it has achieved from just two authors: Fields and Scott Mariani, who topped the inaugural weekly rank- ing back in May 2016. Below the chart’s blockbuster


triumvirate, the top 20 was flooded with new entries. Former chart- topper Ellie Dean’s As the Sun


Breaks Trough hit fifth place, with veteran authors Barbara Erskine’s Te Ghost Tree, Val McDermid’s Broken Ground and Lynda La Plante’s Murder Mile


h e Title 1  Perfect Silence 2  This is Going to Hurt


4  The Tattooist of Auschwitz 5  As the Sun Breaks Through 6  The Ghost Tree 7  Broken Ground 8  Murder Mile


9  Little Fires Everywhere 10  Origin


11  Friend Request 12  Vox


13  Pieces of Her 14  The Break


15  From Here to You


16  This Could Change Everything 17  The Guilty Dead


18  The Handmaid’s Tale 19  Sapiens


20  Why Mummy Drinks Author


Helen Fields Adam Kay


barrelling into the top 10. It book in a row to hit the ranking, and La Plante s sixth, but Erskine makes her e-book début. Her print books have sold more than a million copies in the UK through Nielsen BookScan. Christina Dalcher’s début Vox charted in 12th


place, following in the footsteps of its fellow red- and-black-jacketed speculative feminist dystopian e-book hits Margaret Atwood’s Te Handmaid’s Tale and Naomi Alderman’s Te Power. (Te former is still in the top 20, after its adaptation’s second series aired on Channel 4.) US mother-daughter team P J Tracy made their


second appearance in the Weekly E-Book Ranking, with Te Guilty Dead following on from last year’s Nothing Stays Buried.


Imprint ISBN (+978) Avon


3  Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman HarperCollins Heather Morris Zaffre Ellie Dean


Cornerstone


Barbara Erskine HarperCollins Val McDermid Little, Brown Lynda La Plante Zaffre Celeste Ng Dan Brown


Laura Marshall Little, Brown Christina Dalcher HQ


Karin Slaughter HarperCollins Marian Keyes Michael Joseph Jamie McGuire Hachette Jill Mansell P J Tracy


Margaret Atwood Vintage Yuval Noah Harari Vintage Gill Sims


 List price


Picador 1509858644 0008172138


0008275181 £3.49 £8.99 £3.99


1785763663 £4.99 1473539815 0008195830 1408709375


Little, Brown 1408709702 Transworld


1473543348 0751568349


£3.99 £9.99 £9.99


1785764691 £8.99 £3.99 £4.99 £2.99


0008300654 £5.99 0008150846 1405918770 1538730041


Headline 1472208965 Michael Joseph


1405936040 1446485477 1448190690


£9.99 £4.99 £2.99 £3.99 £7.99 £5.99 £5.99


HarperCollins 0008237509 £3.49


Week ending 25th August 2018. Key New Up Same Down. Titles with a selling price below £2 are excluded, as are titles priced £4.50 or below with any print versions priced above £17.99. Participating publishers: PRH UK, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Bloomsbury, Simon & Schuster, Bonnier Zaffre & Canongate.


21.05.21 ISSN 0006-7539 At the heart of publishing since 1858. £5.95


30.04.21 TH S WEEK TH HIIS West Lost Lo


&Nesb& Nes ibit h of th ‘b ntag


the ‘bra y ta e


Company Spotlight Janklow & Nesbit


Welsh publishers club together to form a new trade association as the sector is the subject of our Country Focus PP06–21


West L ndon-based literary agency Janklow Ne b t has been one of the progenitors f the brain non-fiction’ trend of recent viintage, w


Silence is golden


, witha number of big books and deals fr


romtheWill Francis-led outfit


Dave Goulson discusses the book his publisher is calling his ‘magnum opus’: an ecological call-to-arms entitled Silent Earth


Right on time


Horace Bent shares his experience of the virtual British Book Awards 2021, and his hot takes on the red carpet attire on show


The bestseller lists


TCM Top


Three 16,901 ISSN 0006-7539


Combined TCM sales of the three Janklow & Nesbit titles shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Prize


At the heart of publishing since 1858. £5.95 283 3


Of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society Science Prize were titles originated through Janklow &Nesbit UK


& Ne 30–40 30


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about turning something as abstract as an idea into a book. Less intellectually, it is just really fun doing big deals.”


Te special relationship Francis became a fully fledged agent when he joined Greene & Heaton in 2003, before moving over to Janklow five years later. He was named the head of the firm’s UK office in 2013. Janklow UK is a subsidiary of the massive US powerhouse, whose star-heavy list includes commercial giants (Danielle Steel, Anne Rice), literary greats (Jeffrey Eugenides, Joan Didion) and celebrities (of note recently, iels) Yet the UK side,


Company history


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Tipping point Is


Is the tra e atde ade a


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a watershed moment


he re representation?


for LGBTQ+ t


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Brighton rock


Tanya Byrne on the city that was her ‘port in a storm’ and her new novel, Afterlove, leads an LGBTQ+ Publishing special PP32–33


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