Walter Isaacson's authorised biography of the Apple CEO ships more than 37,000 copies in first five days on sale in UK
Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple's former CEO Steve Jobs hit the top of the bestsellers in its first week on sale in the UK. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP
There may not have been overnight queues of fans like those for the release of a new iPhone or iPad, but Steve Jobs produced another hit with the final work to bear his name: the only authorised biography of the Apple co-founder soared to the top of the UK bestseller charts in the week of its release, according to sales figures released on Tuesday.
Walter Isaacson's critically acclaimed biography, published 19 days after Jobs's death, sold more than 37,000 copies – more than any other fiction or nonfiction paperback or hardback in its first five days on sale, according to Nielsen Bookscan, the official industry measurement system for retail sales. The BookScan figures include sales of physical books from the online retailer Amazon, where the hardcover version, on sale at half the suggested £25 price, has topped Amazon's bestseller charts since it was released on 24 October. They do not however include electronic versions of the book, which was 15th in Amazon's Kindle downloads chart, behind the Chris Evans autobiography, Memoirs of a Fruitcake, which was released on 14 October.
The book is already the 27th bestselling biographies of the year, a category led by Kate McCann's story about the abduction of her daughter Madeleine. Released in May, that sold more than 72,000 copies in the three days after it was released, and has so far sold 242,000.
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, published in the UK by the Little Brown book group, outsold the second most popular book in the Nielsen charts – Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help – by more than 15,000 copies.
Jon Howells, spokesman for Waterstone's, said the Jobs biography was shaping up to be easily one of the biggest selling books for Christmas.
"This sounds like a phenomenal first week sale for a biography," Howells said. "Usually when you see huge sales for a book about a life story it's an autobiography which the subject is usually promoting. When it's a biography you don't usually see such massive sales.
"It shows just how incredibly interesting Steve Jobs is and how the fandom of Apple is translating from iPods and iPhones and into a book about the cult of Steve Jobs. There is no doubt that it will be easily the biggest biography sale of the week and one of the big books for Christmas."
Walter Isaacson's critically acclaimed biography, published 19 days after Jobs's death, sold more than 37,000 copies – more than any other fiction or nonfiction paperback or hardback in its first five days on sale, according to Nielsen Bookscan, the official industry measurement system for retail sales. The BookScan figures include sales of physical books from the online retailer Amazon, where the hardcover version, on sale at half the suggested £25 price, has topped Amazon's bestseller charts since it was released on 24 October. They do not however include electronic versions of the book, which was 15th in Amazon's Kindle downloads chart, behind the Chris Evans autobiography, Memoirs of a Fruitcake, which was released on 14 October.
The book is already the 27th bestselling biographies of the year, a category led by Kate McCann's story about the abduction of her daughter Madeleine. Released in May, that sold more than 72,000 copies in the three days after it was released, and has so far sold 242,000.
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, published in the UK by the Little Brown book group, outsold the second most popular book in the Nielsen charts – Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help – by more than 15,000 copies.
Jon Howells, spokesman for Waterstone's, said the Jobs biography was shaping up to be easily one of the biggest selling books for Christmas.
"This sounds like a phenomenal first week sale for a biography," Howells said. "Usually when you see huge sales for a book about a life story it's an autobiography which the subject is usually promoting. When it's a biography you don't usually see such massive sales.
"It shows just how incredibly interesting Steve Jobs is and how the fandom of Apple is translating from iPods and iPhones and into a book about the cult of Steve Jobs. There is no doubt that it will be easily the biggest biography sale of the week and one of the big books for Christmas."
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