You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
With nearly a fortnight to go until the Man Booker shortlist is revealed on 8th September, sales of the 13 longlisted titles overall have slowed, with most selling less this week than last, according to Nielsen BookScan data. Only Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate) is continuing to grow sales, chalking up sales of 1,606 this week compared to 1,410 the week before.
Wolf Hall’s sales since the announcement on 28th July now number 5,751 copies, beating Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger (Virago), at 5,593, and Me Cheeta by James Lever (Fourth Estate) at 4,951. A S Byatt's The Children's Book (Chatto) has sold 2,576 copies.
Summertime by J M Coetzee (Harvill Secker), which wasn’t published until 13th August, has chalked up 544 so far, while William Trevor’s Love and Summer (Viking), out only on the 17th, has more than doubled that tally, with sales of 1,392, a total which will be boosted by its forthcoming serialisation on BBC Radio 4’s "Book at Bedtime" from 31st August to 11th September.
Not Untrue and Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin (Penguin Ireland), which has sold 268 copies since the announcement, sold just 56 copies last week, compared to 136 the week before. Sales of Heliopolis by James Scudamore (Harvill Secker) have also dropped from 186 to 104 week on week, the title having sold 1,000 copies so far (the announcement bounced its sales from three copies to 100).
Overall sales leader The Little Stranger is way out in front at 32,598 volume sales, with closest rivals Wolf Hall at 19,843 and Me Cheeta at 19,256.