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Booksellers are looking forward to a sales boost on the back of Super Thursday (yesterday, 11th October). The Financial Times, the Times, the BBC News Channel, BBC Radio 4’s “You and Yours” and Sky News are among the high-profile media outlets which have covered the industry’s autumn publishing bonanza, which included memoirs from Cheryl Cole (HarperCollins), Rod Stewart (Century), Miranda Hart (Hodder & Stoughton) and David Walliams (Michael Joseph).
Georgina Hanratty from Tales on Moon Lane in London’s Herne Hill, said her bookshop was already experiencing a buzz, with last Saturday (6th October) an “incredibly busy day which more closely resembled a Saturday in December”. Hanratty said: “It is good for us because we get two bites of the cherry—people will come in because they want the book now, and people will also come in nearer to Christmas to buy presents. It can be a push displaying all the new titles to their best effect on shelves but we have managed it—just.”
Jon Howells of Waterstones said: “We have just had J K Rowling’s book out so there is a lot going on for a variety of reasons. The atmosphere is good out there.” He added: “Whether there is public awareness of Super Thursday is debatable, but to have a period of time where a lot of major new books are released and getting media attention is great, because it reminds people that all these books are out on the high street—and Christmas is not that far away.”
Last year sales of hardbacks in BookScan’s top 5,000 grew 35% week on week after Super Thursday (29th September 2011), with sales of hardback novels up 55% and hardback non-fiction books up 40%. Altogether 11 books (eight hardbacks) released on the bumper date last year went on to sell more than 100,000 copies by the end of the year, taking a combined £18.6m through bookshop tills in little over three months.