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UK publishers are re-issuing their call for UK e-book sales charts, as the Wall Street Journal published the first official Nielsen BookScan US e-book charts for the week ended 23rd October.
The charts—which do not include any sales figures and are measured by volume sales—include a top 10 e-book chart for fiction and non-fiction alongside combined e-book and print top 10s for both fiction and non-fiction.
The charts showed self-published e-books stealing into the fiction e-book chart, with The Mill River Recluse, written and published by Darcie Chan, in at number five; The Abbey, written and published by Chris Culver, taking the number six slot; and Last Breath, produced by Michael Prescott, at number eight. Chan's title also took the number 10 slot in the fiction combined chart.
Hachette head of digital, George Walkley, said the US chart "highlights the need for a digital element to charts [in the UK]." Penguin also backed the demand for more e-book charts. Walkley added: "We need to have a reliable e-book bestseller list that reflects the industry's digital business, supplementing the list for printed books and providing a comprehensive view of the bestselling books in the UK in all formats."
Nielsen Book president Jonathan Nowell said Nielsen would like to create an e-book chart for every territory, but he could not confirm a timescale. He said: "So much is dependent on the data we can get from e-book retailers, and we are very much in dialogue with them globally."