You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
HarperCollins has benefited from bringing the launch of its Michael Jackson title Legend, Hero, Icon forward two days, selling more than twice the number of its hardback competitor published by Headline. Harper's title, written by James Aldis, sold 3,612 copies over the four days it was on sale to 18th July, according to Nielsen BookScan.
The Hachette UK publisher's tribute to the dead singer - Life Of A Legend - notched up about half the number of sales, with 1,703 copies being sold in the two days it was available.
Simon & Schuster, whose paperback title Unmasked, was officially released on the same day as Harper (15th July), was in third position among the new titles, recording just 698 copies sold.
However, all three publishers have failed to catch up with this week's number one non-fiction title, J Randy Taraborrelli's 2004 biography The Magic and the Madness (Pan Macmillan), which sold 21,298 copies over the full seven days.
Taraborrelli's book has moved up to third in the top 50 list of all titles, with Maeve Binchy's latest Heart and Soul (Orion), which was last week's highest new entry at five, capturing the top spot this week. Hodder's tie-in edition of the Jodi Picoult novel My Sister's Keeper has retained its number two position, with Stephenie Meyer's The Host dropping to sixth from number one.
In total £30m was spent through the Total Consumer Market, up 1.7% week-on-week, and down just 0.3% year-on-year.