SECTOR ANALYSIS
1.0 fell in early March, Girl, Woman, Other became a staple of the lockdown charts, before the Black Lives Mater movement in late May and anti-racism reading lists on social media boosted it into the Mass- Market Fiction number one. The week of its announcement as the Nibbies Fiction Book of the Year, the paperback’s volume doubled week on week to over 20,000 units. Indie bookshop customers seemed to
have particularly embraced it—the Total Consumer Market-wide chart was topped by Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, which could only claim second place among indies to Girl, Woman, Other.
In the period between lockdowns from mid- June to early November, print books sold 80 million units for over £700m, a rise of 15% in volume and 13% in value
BERNARDINE EVARISTO’S GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER PICKED UP THE NIBBIE FOR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
Adult Fiction sales were up 32% year on year as book-buyers stockpiled reading material for the long quaran- tined weeks, and a similar phenom- enon was seen in the days between the government’s announcement of a second lockdown for November and bookshops closing, with Adult Fiction up 47% in volume against the same week in 2019.
But it wasn’t just lock- down-induced blips: across the 21 weeks of open bookshops, fiction titles sold 21.6 million copies, up 11.7% year on year. This was against the period in 2019 that saw the publication of Margaret Atwood’s Booker-winning sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, which shiſted more than
100,000 units in its first week on the shelves.
32% 47%
Increase in Adult Fiction sales compared to the previous year in the week leading up to the first lockdown
Increase in Adult Fiction sales compared to the previous year in the week leading up to the second lockdown
With commutes a thing of the past, hardback fiction also performed strongly, with buyers no longer needing to consider the back strain of carrying around a doorstopper all day. Volume was up 22% year on year. However, the independent bookseller chart for the period crowned a paperback— Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. The Testaments’ joint- Booker-winning title seemed to miss out on a post-announcement boost in October 2019, with book-buyers split between the two winners. Yet it has flourished in paperback. Released just before Lockdown
Candice Cart-Williams’ Queenie, the Nibbies Book of the Year, also reigned in indie bookshop perusers’ hearts, hiting fiſth place. Lockdown favourites Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing and Sally Rooney’s Normal People continued to sell strongly throughout the summer and autumn, too. Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, published in hardback just as
bookshops closed in late March, made a glorious comeback to the Original Fiction chart in June as doors opened again. Its subsequent Women’s Prize win
helped it bounce back up the chart in September—and during the last week of Lockdown 2.0, as bookshops began to reopen for a second time, it pulled off its third sales revival as it was announced as the Waterstones Book of the Year. In sixth place in the independents’ chart, clearly indie book-buyers were consistently enthralled by it.
Trendwatch Weepies/ tear-jerkers
197,122 units
Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens Corsair, £8.99, 9781472154668
173,482 units
The Giver of Stars Jojo Moyes Penguin, £8.99, 9780718183219
127,757 units
The Beekeeper of Aleppo Christy Lefteri Manilla, £8.99, 9781838770013
115,215 units
Those Who Are Loved Victoria Hislop Headline, £8.99, 9781472223227
47,796 units
The Tattooist of Auschwitz Heather Morris Zaffre, £8.99, 9781785763670
February 2021–July 2021 07
*Sales are across all editions through the entire TCM. 15th June to 7th November 2020.
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