Bestselling books of 2014: did the booksellers get it right?

Sian Cain - Wednesday 24 December 2014 - The Guardians.

In an attempt to monitor the Christmas market, we asked seven leading UK retailers – which included large chains and independents – plus the industry journal the Bookseller to predict the season’s bestsellers, and we’ve been monitoring their predictions through the autumn.

One finding is that books seemed relatively immune to theme-day hype: only 47 of the 116 titles that were nominated sold equally or better in the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Previous leaders, such as David Walliams’s Awful Auntie, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and Jamie’s Comfort Food all sold only between 1% and 10% more in Black Friday week compared to a regular week.

But there was one overwhelming exception: Guinness World Records 2015 sold 43,000 copies in the week of Black Friday, compared to a weekly average of 16,000 since it was released in September, and the annual Christmas favourite has now sold a total of 310,642. It was second only to the children’s hit Awful Auntie, which, with 481,000 sales, remained the best-selling book out of the predicted titles sent to us by booksellers every single month. Other good performers this month included the Minecraft Blockopedia, which has sold 38,119 since being published on 4 December, while the internet’s favourite astronaut Chris Hadfield’s December book tour paid off as You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes sold 36,012 (up from 5,493 in November).

Book prizes definitely affected Christmas sales: Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist sold 25,000 copies in December after the debut author was awarded Waterstone’s Book of the Year; it has now sold 66,757 copies (compared to 41,806 between July and November). Richard Flanagan’s Man Booker winner The Narrow Road to the Deep North has sold a healthy 65,692 copies, while Samuel Johnson prize winner H is For Hawk doubled its sales in a month, up to 49,653 from 26,645 in November.

TV also affected buying choices: the two Pointless books have performed consistently well, with one doubling its weekly sales average from 2,275 to 4,693. Once Attenborough’s tie-in documentary series aired, Life Story sold over 11,000 copies in a month, while Tom Kerridge’s recipe book peaked at 10,015 copies sold the week of Black Friday, since selling 58,000 just in December. Brian Cox’s Human Universe has sold 50,833, almost doubling sales since November, as has chat show host Graham Norton’s autobiography The Life and Loves of a He Devil, up to 43,654 from 24,113.

Comparing the sales of the books predicted to sell by the booksellers, with the UK’s overall bestsellers of the year reveals some interesting titbits about our book buying habits during the rest of the year. The top 20 overall bestsellers in 2014 were (predicted Christmas titles in bold):

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (854,262)
2. Minecraft: The Official Construction Handbook (520,363)
3. Awful Auntie by David Walliams (481,662)
4. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (467,485)
5. Minecraft:The Official Combat Handbook (442,511)
6. Minecraft: The Official Redstone Handbook (388,906)
7. Minecraft: the Official Beginner’s Handbook (368,935)
8. Inferno (Robert Langdon Book Four) by Dan Brown (338,719)
9. Guinness World Records 2015 (310,642)
10. The Long Haul (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book Nine) by Jeff Kinney (309,255)
11. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (289,966)
12. There’s Something I’ve Been Dying to Tell You by Lynda Bellingham (265,263)
13. Mary Berry Cooks by Mary Berry (261,954)
14. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (239,932)
15. Divergent (Divergent Book Three) by Veronica Roth (233,958)
16. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding (231,008)
17. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (225,825)
18. The Rosie Project (Don Tillman Book One) by Graeme Simsion (222,050)
19. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (213,439)
20. Gangsta Granny by David Walliams (206,596)   

More