Friday, May 08, 2015

Sales figures tell all about the UK's waning love for celebrity memoirs

Publishing industry data for 2014 spills the beans on decline in biography and cookbook sales, while children’s literature in print rises by 10%

The UK’s top 10 bestseller list in print was dominated by children’s writers, including four books based on the block-building game Minecraft.
The UK’s top 10 bestseller list in print was dominated by children’s writers, including four books based on the block-building game Minecraft. Photograph: Bettina Strenske/Alamy
Publishers used to have a simple recipe for a bestseller: sign up a celebrity or a TV chef and get the book out for Christmas.
Not any more. The latest industry data suggests that readers’ love affair with the celebrity memoir is cooling.
Sales of autobiographies and biographies, the largest category in non-fiction publishing, fell 7% in 2014, as offerings from John Cleese, Stephen Fry and Kevin Pietersen disappointed industry expectations.
Publishing insiders said no book came close to repeating the success of Alex Ferguson’s memoir in 2013, which became the fastest-selling non-fiction book since records began, shifting 647,000 copies in less than three months.
The bestselling memoir last year was Lynda Bellingham’s There’s Something I’ve been Dying to Tell You, which leapt up the charts following the death of the actress and broadcaster in October.

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