Neill Cameron tidies up in the Indie charts
Neill Cameron has debuted straight at the top of the Independent Bookshop Top 20 with Make A Mess! (DFB Phoenix), the second title in his Donut Squad graphic novel series, according to the latest data from NielsenIQ BookData.
The second of Cameron’s Donut Squad series is one of two new releases in the Indie Top 20 and a rare strong performance for a children’s title in a chart which traditionally is dominated by adult fiction. Perhaps helping Cameron’s success is a discount off the £9.99 RRP of a third, another rare occurrence as most bestsellers in indie bookshops sell at or near full price.
NielsenIQ does not reveal the volume sales data for indie bookshops, so it is not possible to say how much of the comic’s 7,650 copies sold this week across the wider Total Consumer Market (TCM) came through the independent sector.
The only other new release to make a mark in indies is Aria Aber’s Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlisted Good Girl (Bloomsbury) – appearing in sixth place, 388 rungs higher than the TCM where it sold 970 copies.
Aber’s debut novel is the biggest over-indexing title with the indie bookshops. Conversely, the main casualties from the TCM are the UK’s top selling titles of the week. Neither Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid (Little, Brown) nor Sophie Richards’ The Anti-Inflammatory 30-Day Reset (Michael Joseph) make an appearance with indies despite selling more than 30,000 copies combined across Britain.
Instead, the Indie Top 20 this week has seen a number of paperback fiction titles re-enter the chart, including Sophie Hughes’ translation of Vincenzo Latronico’s Booker International shortlistee Perfection (Fitzcarraldo Editions) and Roisin O’Donnell’s Women’s Prize-longlisted Nesting (Scribner), both of which perform well for the indies, despite only making it to 218th and 222nd place in full-market charts, respectively.
One other title to keep an eye on this week is Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet. The indie favourite’s 2021 bestseller has risen to 10th place in the Indie Bookshop Top 20, as well as rising to 65th position in the TCM, ahead of the Oscar-buzzed film adaptation due to be released in cinemas this weekend.
The full Independent Bookshop Top 20 can be found on The Bookseller’s bestseller pages.
The Bookseller has adjusted the Independent Bookshop chart to remove some titles where sales do not derive from traditional bricks-and-mortar bookshops, such as exhibition catalogues and those featured on conglomerates’ subscription boxes.
