The Escape eclipses Berry as World Book Day titles clean up

The force was with World Book Day (WBD) last week as The Escape: Star Wars (Egmont) claimed the number one spot from Mary Berry’s Foolproof Cooking (BBC) and all 10 WBD titles charted inside the top 15. Only Berry and the Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups title How it Works: The Mum (Michael Joseph) held their own, with Joe Wicks’ Lean in 15 (Bluebird) slipping out of the top 10 altogether.

However, this year’s WBD titles collectively sold 319,290 copies, 5.6% down on first-week WBD totals in 2015, which topped 339,133 copies.

Cavan Scott’s The Escape, about two children whose parents are kidnapped by the Empire, shifted 52,259 copies for £52,252 according to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, just 400 copies below 2015’s top-selling first-week WBD title The Dinosaur That Pooped a Lot! (Red Fox). Tom Fletcher, Dougie Poynter and Garry Parsons’ picture book went on to sell 148,051 copies in 2015.

Roald Dahl’s The Great Mouse Plot (Puffin) came in third, with 43,039 copies sold, and Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet’s Supertato Hap-Pea Ever After (Simon & Schister), Mick Inkpen’s Kipper’s Visitor (Hodder Children’s) and David Baddiel’s The Boy Who Could Do What He Liked (HarperCollins Children’s) all charted in the top 10.
 
Last year, World Book Day titles took places one to nine in the Top 50, but a clash with Mother’s Day this year saw gift-purchase titles elbow into the upper echelons of the chart. Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris’ How it Works: The Mum (Michael Joseph) leapt into second, increasing its volume 132% week on week to 46,326 copies. The newest spoof Ladybird title has now sold 91,560 copies in four weeks and is 7,140 copies away from overtaking fellow series title The Hipster, which has been out since October.

Owing to WBD, Mary Berry—who wrestled the top spot from eight-week wonder Joe Wicks a week ago—slipped to fifth, despite selling an extra 15,733 copies on the week before. Due to WBD titles’ average selling price of £1, Foolproof Cooking (at £12.56) was by far the most valuable title in the Top 50 last week, bringing in £488,619 and beating The Mum’s £262,260.

Though Wicks dropped to 11th, Lean in 15 held the Paperback Non-Fiction number one for a 10th consecutive week and increased in volume by 669 copies week on week. Philippa Gregory’s The Taming of the Queen (Simon & Schuster) held onto the Mass Market Fiction number one, as well as being the highest charting adult fiction title in 12th place. It, too, increased sales, shifting 8,225 copies more than its first week in the chart. Jeffrey Archer’s Cometh the Hour (Macmillan) held the Original Fiction number one for a second week running, despite dropping to 20th overall.

Romance & Saga titles— such as Katie Fforde’s A Vintage Wedding (Arrow) and Margaret Dickinson’s The Buffer Girls (Pan)— and non-WBD Children’s titles both experienced a boost in sales, though they were pushed down the Top 50. David Walliams’ new paperback Awful Auntie (HarperCollins Children’s), knocked off the Children’s number one spot, sold an extra 1,386 copies on the week before and 2013’s Gangsta Granny entered the Top 50 in 48th place.