Thursday, November 07, 2013

Alex Ferguson's charts reign continues

06.11.13 | Philip Stone - The Bookseller

Sir Alex Ferguson's memoir, My Autobiography (Hodder & Stoughton), enjoyed a second week of six-figure sales last week. It comfortably retains pole position in the latest official bestseller charts.

 My Autobiography, the former Manchester United football boss' second memoir, sold 102,828 copies in the week ending 2nd November—down marginally from its opening-week sale of 115,547 units, but four times the sale of the next bestselling book of the week, Peter James' Roy Grace thriller, Dead Man's Time (Pan).

 The hardback edition of Alex Ferguson's My Autobiography has now sold 218,385 copies since publication, making it one of the top 10 bestselling books of the year thus far. Just one hardback book has sold more copies in 2013: Dan Brown's Inferno (Bantam Press, 602,000 sales).

 As The Bookseller revealed last week, Ferguson's memoir become the fastest-selling non-fiction book on record thanks to its six-figure first-week sale. Ferguson is well on his way to breaking another record—that of the bestselling sports memoir on record. His former protegé David Beckham currently holds that title—his My Side (HarperCollinsWillow) has sold 635,000 copies since publication in 2003. Ferguson's My Autobiography is outpacing that title by 15%.

 Beckham's new book, simply titled David Beckham (Hodder & Stoughton), hit shelves last week. However, it misses out on a place in the Official UK Top 50. The £25 hardback publication sold 4,419 copies in the UK last week—just 1/26th the sale his former boss' My Autobiography enjoyed in its first week on shelves.

 Helped by schools breaking for half-term, sales of children’s books jumped 6% week on week last week according to Nielsen BookScan TCM Top 5,000 data. Books including Liz Pichon’s Tom Gates: Extra Special Treats (Scholastic); Minecraft Beginner’s Handbook (Egmont); Soman Chaniani’s The School for Good and Evil (HarperCollins) and Sophie Schrey’s Where’s Wally?-esque Where’s the Penguin? (Buster Books) outstripped the average, enjoying boosts of 50% or more.

 However, an increase in sales of children’s titles could not offset declines in fiction and non-fiction. BookScan data reveals the total value of the printed book market fell marginally week on week—by £0.4m, or 1.2%, to £30.3m. Sales were down 1.6% (£0.5m) on the same week last year when Sylvia Day's erotic novel, Reflected in You (Penguin), proved the UK bestseller with sales totalling 83,000 copies.
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