The Bookseller.com

29th August 2008

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Diana a tough sell for booksellers

07.09.07 Anna Richardson

The 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana this summer saw blanket media coverage, but sales of only a few books reflected sustained public interest in Diana.

Coverage started in earnest when Princes William and Harry organised a commemorative concert on Diana's birthday (1st July), accompanied by an exclusive BBC TV interview.

Publications timed to coincide with the occasion, such as Tina Brown's The Diana Chronicles (Century) and the paperback of Sarah Bradford's Diana (Penguin), saw expected sales peaks at the time, and have since sold more than 21,000 (both editions) and 8,500 copies respectively through Nielsen BookScan.

Sales of less mainstream titles, such as the fictional 12:23 by Eoin McNamee (Faber) and The Accident Man by Tom Cain (Bantam Press), proved patchy. 12:23 did not enter the BookScan Top 5,000, but The Accident Man—pitched as a controversial mass market thriller—has sold more than 5,700 copies since its July publication.

The Murder of Princess Diana by journalist Noel Botham (Metro) has sold steadily, averaging around 300 copies a week since its release at the beginning of the year.

The anniversary of Diana's death on 31st August saw extensive broadcast coverage, with documentaries such as ITV's "Diana's Last Summer", but didn't result in any significant book sales spikes in the week ending 1st September.

Overall, Diana-related titles have sold around 56,000 copies in 2007.

Retail Media Anna Richardson Diana