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Ian Rankin has become the first Scottish writer, and only the seventh British novelist, to pass the £50m print sales barrier since official records began. Thanks to a huge surge in sales of his books since he picked up the Outstanding Achievement gong at the Specsavers National Book Awards earlier this month, Rankin breezed passed the £50m mark last week. In total, £317,000 was spent on 32,400 copies of his numerous works - up 44% week on week, and up 93% on a fortnight ago in volume terms.
According to Nielsen BookScan data, £50.1m has been spent on 7.7m copies of his novels since its official point-of-sale records began in 1998. Twelve of his novels have sold more than 250,000 copies through BookScan's Total Consumer Market, led by 2007's Exit Music with sales of 528,000 copies to date. Impressively, print sales of his most recent novel, Standing in Another Man's Grave, are up an incredible 45% on Exit Music. It has sold 102,000 copies across all print editions in just six weeks, and leapfrogged J K Rowling's The Casual Vacancy (Little, Brown) in the charts to become the hardback fiction Christmas Number One.
Rankin sits 19th in a list of the most valuable writers to booksellers since records began - one position ahead of fellow countryman Alexander McCall Smith, whose printed book sales currently stand at £47.3m. J K Rowling tops the chart with sales of £242m, with Jamie Oliver and James Patterson second and third in the list with sales of £134m and £104m respectively.
Authors fast-approaching the £50m barrier include E L James, McCall Smith and Stephen King.
Top 10 Rankin
1) Exit Music (2007) 528,000 copies sold
2) The Naming of the Dead (2006) 495,000
3) Fleshmarket Close (2004) 480,000
4) Doors Open (2008) 429,000
5) The Falls (2001) 388,000
6) A Question of Blood (2003) 382,000
7) Resurrection Men (2002) 379,000
8) The Complaints (2009) 374,000
9) Set in Darkness (2000) 319,000
10) Black and Blue (1997) 279,000