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WH Smith's exclusive book club with Richard and Judy has already seen more sales than the pair's previous TV Summer Read campaign from their show on Watch.
According to Nielsen Bookscan, in the first seven weeks on sale the eight titles in Richard and Judy's WHS book club have sold 433,170 copies. Whereas the eight titles in Richard and Judy's Summer Reads book club, which was televised on UKTV Watch in 2009, sold just 338,834 copies at the same point in the campaign.
The sales of the books so far are however down on Richard and Judy's Summer Read which was televised on Channel Four in 2008. Titles from this campaign sold over one million copies.
Rachel Russell, WH Smith books business unit director, said the book club had "massively exceeded [WHS's] expectations". She added the retailer wouldn't be changing anything for the next campaign, but said there are always opportunities to "build on our promotions".
After the first couple of weeks there was a drop in sales of around 30%. Russell said there had been TV advertising early on in the campaign, but added "the following week there was a campaign space change to prioritise the big hardbacks front of store in line with the Christmas launches, so the drop in sales is driven by less high profile space and coming off the back of TV campaign".
The first two titles to be promoted, Sister by Rosamund Lupton (Piatkus) and The Snowman by Jo Nesbo (Vintage), have been the best sellers, selling 138,294 and 138,294 respectively. In total the eight titles have brought more than £2m through UK till-points.