BEST SELLER LISTS

For many years in New Zealand I regarded these list as being at best most unscientific, rather dodgy even, as the sales figures were supplied by a small number of booksellers who had a vested interested in talking up certain titles, in particular those of which they had healthy stocks. As a result I used to take the lists with a healthy grain of salt.

Then the Nielsen Company (www.nz.nielsen.com ) which had been monitoring consumer behaviour in New Zealand for many years, introduced the Nielsen BookScan service which was launched in New Zealand in December 2008, thanks to the support from the local publishing industry as well as booksellers New Zealand-wide.

The figures now supplied are totally kosher. They are published in a number of newspapers, as well as being supplied to booksellers, publishers and others who subscribe to Nielsen's service.

I found the figures Nielsen BookScan Servicee released today most interesting:

Top 10 titles – First four weeks 2010 ranked by volume sales:

1 The Girl who Played with Fire
Stieg Larsson
Quercus Publishing Plc
$28.99

2
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
Stieg Larsson
Maclehose Press
$37.99

3
Breaking Dawn
Stephenie Meyer
Atom
$27.99

4
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson
Quercus Publishing Plc
$28.99

5
Eclipse
Stephenie Meyer
Atom
$27.99

6
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
Picador
$27.99

7
New Moon
Stephenie Meyer
Atom
$27.99

8
Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
Atom
$22.99

9 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Film tie-in
Stieg Larsson
Quercus Publishing Plc
$28.99

10
The Official New Zealand Road Code 2009
Land Transport NZ
$24.90

Top 10 titles – First four weeks 2010 (excluding Stephenie Meyer) ranked by volume sales:

1
The Girl who Played with Fire
Stieg Larsson
Quercus Publishing Plc
$28.99

2
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
Stieg Larsson
Maclehose Press
$37.99

3
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson
Quercus Publishing Plc
$28.99

4
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
Picador
$27.99

5
The Girl with the Dragon tattoo - Film tie-in
Stieg Larsson
Quercus Publishing Plc
$28.99

6 The Official New Zealand Rode Code 2009
Land Transport NZ
$24.90

7
The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown
Bantam Press
$60.00

8
The Wonky Donkey
Craig Smith
Scholastic New Zealand
$24.99

9
Open - An Autobiography
Andre Agassi
HarperCollins Publishers
$34.99

10
A Song in the Daylight
Paullina Simonds
HarperCollins Publishers
$36.99

Some random thoughts about these two lists:

1.They illustrate two current phenomena in the book world - the huge, utterly spectacular sales of Steig Larsson's stunning Millenium Trilogy and the unbelievable success and international popularity of Stephenie Myer's titles.

2.Fiction is dominant.

3.Movies still influece book sales - The Lovely Bones was first pubished in 2002 and eight years later it is back in the best seller lists.

4.Children's books rarely feature. Only one on this list, The Wonky Donkey, which when I last checked with the publisher had sold over 70,000 copies.

Any other comments anyone?

My thanks to Nielsen BookScan for making this information available.