Up n' Down

Oops! Looks like we did it again. After a stuttering start to the autumn season through bookshops, Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me landed with 91,000 print copy sales in its first week (including pre-orders), finally breaking the ice. Gimme more, one might say. Or, for those at the back, hit me, baby, one more time.

It should be easy, but of course it never is. Not only was Spears’ book the fastest selling non-fiction title for its publisher Simon & Schuster, it has set a single week non-fiction record, with S&S’ previous BookScan high the 50,367 copies Dave Grohl’s The Storyteller sold in 2021. It has also helped put the book market back on the radar helped by a heavy release schedule that saw 17 new titles hit the Top 50 and strong children’s sales boosted by Halloween and the October half-term school break.

Before that this autumn had looked a little, well, scary, a bit of a slumber party when it came to sales, almost a little toxic, with commercial bankers such as Peter Kay, Dawn French and Billy Connolly beginning softly, driving some in their publishing businesses a little crazy.

So what’s going on? Some of it appears to be about a changing of the guard with new names such as Steven Bartlett, Nathan Anthony and Rory Stewart looking to establish themselves as book brands – the new, brightest morning stars – with their ascendancy coming a little ahead of the curve in terms of the Christmas market. In some cases a lack of publicity, and spots to shine, is clearly impacting some names, and it will be interesting to see if Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tour of the television sofas over the past week continues to build his sales stronger after a slightly middle-weight start. Yes, he’ll be back!

Sometimes, what you see is what you get. The top of the bestseller market continues to be dominated by fiction with established names such as Richard Osman, John Grisham, Martina Cole, Robert Galbraith and Dilly Court

Sometimes, what you see is what you get. The top of the bestseller market continues to be dominated by fiction with established names such as Richard Osman, John Grisham, Martina Cole, Robert Galbraith and Dilly Court just about holding off upstarts such as Monica Heisey, Gabrielle Zevin and Bonnie Garmus, the brave new authors of the past year.

Overall, £38.6m was sold by British booksellers last week, 16.2% up on the previous seven-day period and a 2% jump on 2022. Only one BookScan week (43) – generally the last full week of October – has recorded a bigger TCM haul in the past decade. If that’s the shot, then Penguin Random House UK’s announcement this week of a proposed 38 job losses provides the chaser, with its chief executive Tom Weldon pointing to longer term changes to the marketplace that present a challenge to its “dual strategy to invest to grow while being increasingly vigilant on costs”. Weldon highlights geopolitical and macroeconomic factors, but also their impacts on local business with price rises not quite offsetting costlier paper, and a market that has declined 4.5% compared with last year.

Britney’s book may be hot, its arrival a moment to make you happy. We will need to hold on tight. But at least for now, the beat goes on. Lucky.