David Nicholls scales second peak in Indie charts
Not content with taking the top spot in the UK’s Official Top 50, David Nicholls’ You Are Here has scaled a second peak by ascending the Indie Bookshop Top 20 in the latest data from NielsenIQ BookData.
It is impossible to say – because NielsenIQ does not release sales data for the indie charts – exactly how many of You Are Here’s 20,124 copies this week derives from indie bookshops, but it follows a familiar shape in both rankings, rising from third place to first, suggesting a similar increase in both sectors.
Sheryl Shurville of Chorleywood Bookshop said: “Chorleywood Bookshop hosted a sold-out literary lunch for David Nicholls for the launch of the hardback of You Are Here at Chenies Manor last summer. Consequently, we have seen great interest in this novel, which is now experiencing a further boost with the paperback edition. It is these kinds of intimate and bespoke author events that independent bookshops excel at, as we strive to connect avid readers and leading writers in exciting, insightful and engaging ways. You Are Here is a wonderful book and exactly the type of heartwarming, uplifting story that we’re seeing our customers looking for in these turbulent times.”
One title that has not seen a similar behaviour in indie bookshops is Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s The Art of a Lie which makes its debut in the Indie Bookshop Top 20 in fourth position, some 131 positions higher than its TCM placing.
Shepherd-Robinson’s latest is by far the biggest over-indexer with titles from the British Library, such as Phantoms of the Kernow and Cyanide in the Sun – short-story collections edited by Joan Passey and Martin Edwards respectively – often appearing in the Indie Bookshop Top 20, several hundred positions higher than they claim in the wider TCM.
Museum guides are also frequent indie over-indexers, undoubtedly the bulk of sales coming from the institutions’ own shops. There is a re-entry into the Indie Top 20 this week from The British Museum Guide in fifth place, and Cartier from V&A Publishing rising to 12th place in the Indie Top 20, the latter appearing more than 500 places higher than its TCM placing.
It is far from the biggest over-achiever, though: that honour goes to the second-highest new entry of the week, for indies at least, with Olaf Falafel’s joke book A Poo on a Pogo Stick (Puffin) taking 19th position, despite only making it to 552nd in the TCM with sales of 675 copies.
The full Independent Bookshop Top 20 can be found on The Bookseller’s bestseller pages.
