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Despite missing out on the overall prize in the Costa Book Awards, Kate Atkinson's Life After Life (Black Swan) has retained the top spot in UK's Official Top 50 shifting 31,678 units and outselling the second-placed book, James Patterson's and Michael White's Private Down Under (Arrow), by a margin of two to one.
Costa winner Nathan Filer's The Shock of the Fall (Borough Press) slipped from second to fourth place with sales dropping 7.6% week on week through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. However, Filer's début has sold an impressive 22,264 print units in the two weeks since winning the prize, after previously selling 9,628 copies across all physical formats since originally being published in May 2013.
Though wet weather and flooding have affected many parts of the country, sales increased marginally week on week, up 1.7% to £23m through the TCM, yet this is 3.3% down on the same week in 2013.
A light publishing schedule contributed to low sales; just five books released last week shifted over 1,000 units through the TCM, none more than 1,730. Consequently, there was little movement in the Top 50, with three new and three re-entries. DK's The LEGO Movie Ultimate Sticker Collection the highest new entry at number 39, shifting 3,365 copies. The seven titles DK has released to tie-in with the film, which opens nationwide on Friday (14th February), have sold just over 18,000 units since being published on 14th January.
Leaping 50 places to number 45 was Hope Daniels' and Morag Livingstone's Hackney Child (Simon & Schuster), boosted by a number of media appearances by Daniels. Though her memoir certainly has mis-mem elements, much of the media interest has come from Daniel's positive take on the often derided foster care system.
The last new entry is the Hairy Bikers' latest, Asian Adventures (W & N), which shifted 2,888 units, good enough for 50th place. The first episode of the series on which the book is based will air on Thursday (13th February).