Thursday, March 20, 2014

Jeffrey Archer scores a charts bullseye

19.03.14 | John Lewis - The Bookseller

There were adult fiction number ones for Jeffrey Archer and James Patterson but for the second straight week the top of the charts were dominated by World Book Day titles and topped by David Melling's Hello Hugless Douglas (Hodder Children's Books).

 Be Careful What You Wish For (Macmillan), the fourth instalment of Archer's Clifton Chronicles, is the highest new hardback entry in the UK top 50, at number 12, and tops the Original Fiction chart this week with sales of 12,612 copies. The third instalment of the series, Best Kept Secret, also debuted at number 12 in the same week last year and also topped original fiction with sales of 13,214 copies. Although sales are 5% down year on year, Archer has scored number ones with every Clifton title and combined sales for the series are in excess of 106,000 copies.

 Archer comfortably outsold his nearest rivals vying for the top of the Original Fiction chart. Patterson (writing with Maxine Paetro) enters at number two with the 13th instalment of the Women's Murder Club series. Unlucky 13 (Century) sold 7,252 copies, while Danielle Steel's Power Play (Bantam, 3,895 copies) rounded off the top three spots in the fiction chart, which features seven new titles this week. They are joined by fellow top 10 alumni, Clive Cussler, Katie Fforde and Alan Titchmarsh.

 Meanwhile, Patterson (writing with David Ellis) topped the Mass-Market Fiction chart with Mistress (Arrow, 17,755 copies), the ninth time he has had the Mass-Market number one in the last 20 weeks.

 Yet, in their second week, WBD titles continue to dominate at the top. Eight of the top 10 positions and 10 of the top 15 are taken with the WBD titles, led by Hello Hugless Douglas' 26,547 units. Sales of the 10 books this week were up 16.5% in comparison to the second week of WBD last year but a like-for-like comparison with the top eight titles this year and last year reveals a slimmer second week volume increase of 2%.

 In Non-fiction, there is no change at the top; Mary Berry climbed one place in the overall top 50 to eighth place but sales for Mary Berry Cooks (BBC) were down 20% on the previous week. Despite this, Berry dominates the top 20 with her new television series providing a backlist boon for the author's Baking Bible (BBC), Complete Cookbook and Cookery Course (DK), all of which make appearances in the chart. Berry's combined volume accounts for 50% of the overall Non-Fiction chart Top 20. The Hairy Biker's Asian Adventure remains at number two with sales of 4,094 copies and a soft week-on-week decline of 3%.  

 Hodder has achieved another number one hit in the Mass-Market Non-Fiction Paperback chart with James Bowen and his street cat Bob's latest memoirs. The World According to Bob sold 8,565 copies last week, while the hardback has sold over 75,000 units since it was released in July last year. The paperback of the feline's first set of adventures has now sold in excess of 480,000 copies through BookScan.

 Overall, the book market was down 3% on the same week last year in terms of volume and value, with 3,014,468 books sold through BookScan for a combined TCM value of £21,180,121.
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