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High hopes for O'Flynn

07.01.08 Tom Tivnan

Tindal Street Press is confident it can meet surging demand for Catherine O'Flynn's Costa First Novel Award-winning What Was Lost, with the publisher gearing up to sell 25-30,000 copies over the next two months.

The Birmingham-based independent is down to 800 copies at distributor Turnaround, and will reprint next week, with a quantity yet to be determined. Publishing director Alan Mahar said: "As a small publisher we have to get the numbers right. We can't just print 50,000 copies, or we'll get hit with returns. But we will talk to our distributor and make an assessment."

Mahar said there had been a "tremendous upsurge in demand" since the Costa announcement. He added: "We've had even a bigger boost than when we were longlisted for the Booker."

Despite the Costa lift and media interest since the announcement was made last week, Mahar said he was "disappointed" that some chain booksellers did not have the book on the shelves. "We had reports that some shops had difficulties getting the books out of the store room and onto the shop floor," he added.

What Was Lost has sold 6,598 copies through Nielsen BookScan since being published in January 2007. Last year's overall Costa winner, Steph Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves (Quercus) went on to sell over 290,116 paperback copies in 2007.

tom tivnan Catherine O'Flynn Tindal Street Press Costa First Novel Award

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