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The economic downturn, the stellar success of Dan Brown, and a particularly competitive fiction market have hit many of the autumn's big names, with brand authors showing sharp drops in sales of their new novels over comparable 2008 and earlier titles.
Nielsen BookScan figures rounded to the nearest 5% show drops of 50% for Patricia Cornwell, 45% for Ben Elton, 25% for Dick Francis, 20% for both Cecelia Ahern and James Patterson, and 15% for Andy McNab. Robert Harris' sales are broadly flat compared to his previous Cicero novel but down 15% on The Ghost, while John Grisham and Maeve Binchy are also showing falls over last year's titles (15% and 35% respectively), but with the caveat that their new offerings are short story collections.
Still building sales are Martina Cole, up 30% with Hard Girls, and Sue Townsend (up 20%). Bernard Cornwell is down on last year's figures but up 20% on his previous Alfred the Great title. Jackie Collins is showing a 15% uplift and Terry Pratchett 10%.
According to BookScan data, £133m was spent on fiction titles during the 12 weeks to 28th November, up 14% year on year, or up 3.3% if Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is excluded.
HarperCollins publishing director Lynne Drew said she was "robust" about the sales dip for her author Ahern in an "extraordinary" 12 months of recession and industry change. "We have still sold over 100,000 hardbacks at £14.99 in a fairly flat market and that is phenomenal in itself," she said. "When you are selling that volume of hardback fiction you are selling to some people who are buying only one or two books a year and that's where Dan Brown has impacted. The Stephenie Meyer phenomenon also affects the younger audience for books like Cecelia's, and there is the sheer weight of fiction on offer this autumn."
Steph Bateson at Asda said: "Some of the fiction brands are down. Patricia Cornwell has been impacted [by the recession] and it's very difficult to say why. Martina Cole has almost doubled her sales [through us] year on year. She's had a lot of exposure with TV so she's become a bit recession-proof."