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Transworld is reporting first day sales of at least 40,000 copies of Madeleine by Kate McCann, about the infamous disappearance of her daughter from their holiday apartment in Portugal four years ago.
The publisher has already reprinted the book twice this week, with 250,000 in print. In order to become the fastest-selling non-fiction book since Nielsen BookScan records began, based on opening week sales, it will need to catch Tony Blair's A Journey (Hutchinson) and sell more than 92,060 copies by the end of tomorrow (Saturday). Transworld m.d. Larry Finlay said: "It's impossible to anticipate, but I think we might well do it . . . I am very happy."
With the book released yesterday (12th May), Finlay partly attributed the book's strong sales to the amount of media interest, with many newspapers running extracts from the Sun's serialisation of the book. He said: "It's had phenomenal coverage, and all for such a good cause, with all the royalties going to the Find Madeleine Fund."
The book also received attention on BBC Radio 4's "Women's Hour", BBC Radio 2's "The Jeremy Vine Show", as well as ITV1's "Daybreak" and BBC1's "Newsnight".
Finlay said market share was so far "fairly evenly split" among the retailers, including W H Smith and its Travel stores, supermarkets and Waterstone's, as well as in independents.