Kinney submits to Day's chart-topper

The penultimate book in Sylvia Day's Crossfire erotica quintet has ended Jeff Kinney's two-week run at the summit of the UK Official Top 50 by a matter of just 221 copies, while Lynda Bellingham's just-released novel joined her memoir in the top 50.  

Day's Captivated by You (Penguin) sold 46,404 copies through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market, squeaking by fellow Penguin Random House stablemate Kinney's The Long Haul (Puffin, 46,183 units). Kinney's ninth Wimpy Kid title is still the fastest selling title of the year after three weeks, shifting 166,629 print copies since being released on 5th November.

This is Day's third straight Crossfire novel to hit the UK's overall number one, after Entwined with You (Penguin) claimed the top spot in June 2013.

PRH has told The Bookseller that Day did even better in e-book volume sales last week, shifting 82,111 units. That is a print and digital total of 128,515, which PRH says is its biggest one week "p" & "e" combined sale of the year, eclipsing the 88,000 units John Green sold in a single week in June.

Sales for the Guinness World Records 2015 (GWR) rose 28% week on week to 31,325 units, bumping Bellingham's There's Something I've Been Dying to Tell You (Coronet) off the top of Hardback Non-Fiction after four consecutive weeks. However, Bellingham's book also had a healthy rise of 19.8% week on week to 30,264 units.

Meanwhile, Bellingham's The Boy I Love, her second novel with Simon & Schuster released this year, débuted in the Top 50 in its first week, selling 6,066 copies in hardback, good enough for 41st place overall and third in HB Fiction.

C J Sansom's Lamentation (Mantle, 8,963 units) returned to number one in Original Fiction for the fourth time in five weeks. The previous week's number one, Stephen King's Revival (Hodder, 8,921 copies), dropped to second.  
 
YouTuber Alfie Deyes' The Pointless Book (Blink, 9,865 units) was number one in Paperback Non-Fiction for the 10th week, the longest period atop the chart this year, besting Bill Bryson's One Summer: America 1927 (Black Swan) which chalked up nine number ones over the summer.

Happily for bricks and mortar booksellers, the Christmas season is kicking into gear. Sales through the TCM were £34.5m, a healthy 10.2% up week on week, though 3% down on the same week in 2013.