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The celebrity memoir is rebounding in 2012 after sales within the much-pilloried genre fell 45% last year to a six-year low.
BookScan data shows sales in its celebrity memoir-dominated "Autobiography: The Arts" category were up 70% year on year in October, and up approximately 30% year on year in November. Sales in "Autobiography: Sport" are up around 40% year on year in November, helped by books from Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Ennis.
Thirty memoirs by sports or entertainment celebrities published in the second half of the year have sold more than 10,000 copies at UK booksellers to date, up from 19 in the comparative period last year.
Four have taken more than £1m through bookshop tills: Cheryl Cole's Cheryl: My Story (Harper), Rod Stewart's Rod: The Autobiography (Century), Clare Balding's My Animals and Other Family (Viking), and Miranda Hart's semi-autobiographical Is it Just Me? (Hodder). Just one celeb-mem (Lee Evans' The Life of Lee) had managed the feat by this point in 2011.
Hart's Is It Just Me? has sold the most copies, performing well for retailers across the board, from independent bookshops to supermarkets. The title sold 161,500 copies to 24th November. In second place is Cole, selling in large quantities at retailers like W H Smith and Asda, and racking up 150,500 units so far. Stewart takes third position, selling 122,000 copies, and Rod is among the bestsellers in the category at Waterstones.
Surprise hit Clare Balding has been a success story for many independents, achieving 99,500 sales through the tills thus far. Rachel Howorth from The Edge of the World bookshop in Penzance said: "Clare Balding is doing better than all of them. Having mostly signed copies really helps, customers seem to love them for Christmas gifts."
Asda's buying manager for books Matt Stone said: "In order of sales our top celebrities are: Cheryl Cole, Rod Stewart, Miranda Hart, Keith Lemon and Paul O'Grady, representing a great mix for all." A spokesperson for W H Smith said Cole, Hart, Wiggins and Stewart were among its top memoirs.
However, many are struggling to make an impact in a packed, competitive market. Releases from "Strictly Come Dancing" judge Bruno Tonioli (Bruno: My Story, Headline); DJ Scott Mills (Love You Bye, Little, Brown) and swimmer Ian Thorpe (This is Me, S&S) have all sold fewer than 500 copies per week on average since their release.