Bestsellers Chart: Ruth Jones is on the side of the Indies
Following a string of successful events in independent bookshops during publication week, Ruth Jones’ By Your Side (Bantam) has debuted straight at number one in the Indie Bookshop Top 20, according to NielsenIQ BookScan.
NielsenIQ does not release volume data for the Indie Top 20 as it cannot reveal retailer market shares, but it is likely that a decent proportion of Jones’ total 7,794 units across BookScan’s full Total Consumer Market last week is due to the author’s performance in indie bookshops.
Emma Corfield-Walters from Book-ish in Crickhowell said: “Ruth Jones is a natural storyteller – witty, warm, and utterly engaging – both on the page and in person. Her seventh event with us sold out in under six hours to a 360-capacity venue. Our customers, many who travelled some distance to attend, continue to comment on what a wonderful time they had at her event last Friday, and many have already read Love Untold and are giving it rave reviews.
"Independent bookshop events like this not only create a real sense of connection between authors and readers, but help build our relationship with customers, and they are vital to our continuing presence on the high street.”
Last week’s indie bookshop number one – Liverpool FC CHAMP20NS (Reach Sport) – has dropped three places to fourth with The World’s Worst Superheroes from David Walliams and Adam Stower (HarperCollins) and AA Dhand’s The Chemist (HQ) – both in their launch weeks pushing to keep it from the top of the chart.
Despite keeping hold of the top spot in the TCM, Richard Osman’s performance in Indie bookshops is falling, as he drops five places to 14th. Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo (Faber) hits seventh in the week of its Mass-Market Fiction paperback release, three spots below its finish in the full TCM. Rooney’s fourth novel makes the rare, but not unheard-of feat in the Indie Bookshop chart of having an average selling price (£10.03) greater than its RRP (£9.99).
There are two titles over-indexing the most with Fiona Sinclair’s Scandalise My Name and EH Visiak’s Medusa – both from the British Library – appearing in 11th and 12th place, more than 350 places higher than their TCM positions.
The full Independent Bookshop Top 20 can be found on The Bookseller’s bestseller pages.
