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HarperCollins' digital sales of Stuart MacBride's Shatter the Bones were almost 18.9% of total sales, the publisher has revealed.
In its first week of sales, the publisher sold 6,416 hardbacks but also sold more than 1,500 e-books. The book is the number one title in The Bookseller's Original Fiction chart. The hardback book has an RRP of £14.99, and sold at an average price of £7.37 through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market.
HarperCollins said it was the highest first week e-book sales for one of its fiction titles. The e-books were priced £4.99 and HarperCollins backed the launch of the book with a "massive" consumer marketing campaign including roadside 6-sheet posters and advertising on phoneboxes. Harper said the majority of sales were through Amazon's Kindle.
Fiction publisher Lynne Drew said: "We couldn’t be more thrilled for Stuart who is really moving to another level, not only going straight in at Number One in the hardback charts but also far exceeding any numbers we have seen in digital sales. That’s a first for us and we think shows the huge and very exciting potential of e-books for our fiction authors."