Great British Bake Off's boost for booksellers

The BBC’s "The Great British Bake Off" (GBBO) series is sending booksellers' tills ringing, with over four million cookbooks by the show’s bakers sold since 2011.

The programme’s most successful author is Linda Collister, whose official Bake Off tie-ins sell like hot cakes, with Great British Bake Off: How to Bake (2011 - BBC Books) and GBBO: Everyday (2013 - BBC Books) selling nearly half a million print copies between them. Meanwhile, GBBO: Celebrations (2015 - Hodder) sold 92,429 copies after its release in July last year, according to Nielsen BookScan.

In terms of the show’s on-screen stars, perhaps as to be expected, co-host Mary Berry is the queen of Bake Off book sales, with her latest hit Foolproof Cooking (BBC) selling 204,641 print copies since January, among the bestselling non-fiction titles of 2016 to date. However, her fellow judge Paul Hollywood has suffered a bit in comparison, with his newest title The Weekend Baker (Michael Joseph) only shifting 6,417 copies since May.

In terms of contestants, Nadiya Hussain leads the pack, with her title Nadiya’s Kitchen (Michael Joseph) bouncing back up into the Hardback Fiction chart last week, as the new series of GBBO began, and following the broadcasting of her own documentary "The Chronicles of Nadiya" last Wednesday, with the title receiving a boost of 18.5% in volume week on week. Since June it has sold 16,961 copies.

Former contestants Ruby Tandoh, Chetna Makan and Martha Collison have also had success in the charts - Tandoh’s Crumb (Chatto & Windus) has shifted 18,479 copies since its release in 2014, while Makan’s The Cardamom Trail (Mitchell Beazley) has sold 4,406 copies since April, when it hit the Hardback Non-Fiction chart. Collison’s Twist (HarperCollins) went straight into the Hardback Non-Fiction top 20 upon its release last month, and has sold 5,193 copies since.

A news series of the show began broadcasting last week, with booksellers expecting further boosts to bake off branded titles as the series continues.

Hodder & Stoughton signed a two-year deal for exclusive publishing rights for "The Great British Bake Off" programme with producer Love Productions in 2014.