One Day breaks seven-day August record

31.08.11 | Philip Stone - The Bookseller

David Nicholls' One Day (Hodder) has broken the record for the biggest ever weekly sale from an adult-readership novel in the month of August.
Across all print editions, One Day sold 92,336 copies at UK booksellers in the seven days to 27th August, beating the previous record, set by Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (Corgi) last year, by more than 15,000 copies.
It brings total sales of the bestselling novel to 1,090,000 copies across all editions, meaning it has become only the 30th novel to surpass the one million print sales mark since Nielsen BookScan records began in 1998. The February 2010-published mass-market edition of the book sold 52,142 copies at UK booksellers last week, and tops the Official UK Top 50 ahead of the more recent film tie-in edition (39,937 copies sold).
James Patterson and Liza Marklund's Postcard Killers (Arrow) climbs one place into third position, while Sophie Hannah's Lasting Damage (Hodder) and Fiona Neill's What the Nanny Saw (Penguin) storm into the top 10 thanks to promotions at W H Smith. Lasting Damage, a member of the retailer's "£2.99 with the Times" link-save promotion, sold 15,871 copies last week, while What the Nanny Saw, which sold 14,585 copies, was the high street retailer's half-price "book of the week".
New entries into the Official UK Top 50 include Linda Collister's The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake (BBC), Russell Brand's Booky Wook 2 (HarperCollins) and Nicholls' début novel, Starter for Ten (Hodder)—sales of which have soared by 130% in the past month. Also new is The Dead Sea Deception by "Adam Blake"—the pseudonym for an "acclaimed, internationally bestselling novelist based in the UK".
The Power of Six (Michael Joseph/Puffin), the new book by "Pittacus Lore" (the pseudonym of James Frey and Jobie Hughes), sold 7,599 copies across its two hardback editions last week. The adult edition of the novel, helped by deep-discount "book of the week" spots at both Waterstone's and Amazon.co.uk, takes top spot in this week's Top 20 Original Fiction chart ahead of Peter Robinson's first standalone novel in more than 15 years, Before the Poison (Hodder). The children's hardback edition of The Power of Six takes 12th position in this week's Top 20 Children's Fiction bestseller chart.
Collister's "Great British Bake Off" tie-in is the new number one in a Top 20 Hardback Non-fiction chart that welcomes three new entries, including Ian Kershaw's The End (Allen Lane)—the acclaimed historian's £30 account of the last months of the Second World War. Bill Bryson's At Home (Black Swan) was once again the bestselling paperback non-fiction title in the UK, and stays top of the Top 20 Paperback Non-fiction list for a 12th week.
In total, £27m was spent at UK booksellers in the seven days to 27th August, up 3.2% (£0.8m) week-on-week, but down 6% (£1.6m) on the comparative week last year. As has been the case all summer, spending on novels was significantly lower than 2010, with sales through BookScan's Top 5,000 bestseller list down 10% year-on-year.