Review of 2018: Authors

In The Bookseller's Review of 2018: Authors, we published a chart of the 50 authors whose books earned the most through Nielsen BookScan's TCM in 2018. Here, we take a deeper dive into the book sales of some of the year's biggest-earning authors.

Head to head: Scottish duo reap benefits of publisher perseverance with successful series fiction

It was a big year for two crime writing sons of Scotland, Edingburgh-born C J Sansom and Fife native Ian Rankin. From the week ending 6th October, the duo combined to hold the Original Fiction number one for five consecutive weeks, two for Rankin’s John Rebus outing In a House of Lies (Orion), and three for the return of Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake in Tombland (Mantle).

Tombland sold 167,000 units for £1.8m; In a House of Lies 106,000 for £1.2m. The titles were two of just four hardback crime novels to hit six figures in volume and seven figures in value through Nielsen BookScan last year.

We are not exactly comparing like for like when we look at the authors’ totals through BookScan. Rankin has been at it a lot longer. His first Rebus, Knots and Crosses, was published in 1987, and as more or less a book-a-year guy he has the far heftier backlist: 163 different editions of his have recorded sales through the TCM. Sansom’s first title, Dissolution, was released in 2003 and he has since published a further six books in the Shardlake series and two standalones: the Spanish Civil War-set Winter in Madrid and the Nazis-won-the-war alternative history spy thriller Dominion. Sansom also had a four-year gap after the sixth Shardlake for a very good reason: he has been battling incurable but treatable bone-marrow cancer.

But when the two have new hardback titles out, the output tends to be similar, both selling in the £1.75m–£2.5m range in a calendar year. Since 2012, when Rankin brought Rebus back from a premature retirement, his new hardbacks have averaged a 111,000-unit sale. Sansom’s last four Shardlakes have sold an average of 127,000 units in hardback (standalone Dominion was less successful, at 80,000 copies).

There is perhaps a lesson for publishers in both authors about thinking about the long game. Sansom’s first Shardlake shifted just under 3,000 copies. The second, Dark Fire, was an improvement (5,994 units) but hardly hit the stratosphere, while his next, Winter in Madrid, sold fewer than that (4,993). It was not until the Winter in Madrid paperback got a bit of luck (selected in the Richard & Judy Book Club when the promotion was at its pomp) that Sansom hit the heights.

Rankin’s early days are pre-BookScan, but the author has frequently mentioned how he was given the freedom to develop the series (he once bemoaned Knots and Crosses, saying it should be renamed “Cliché City”) and it did not really hit its stride commercially until 1993’s The Black Book, his fifth Rebus outing.

Head to head: Two of Britain’s bestselling authors rack up the records as children’s market remains buoyant

Children’s stalwart Julia Donaldson just concluded her record-setting ninth consecutive year earning £10m-plus through BookScan—no other author has hit eight figures more than four years on the trot. And, some time in April 2019, she will become just the third author (after J K Rowling and Jamie Oliver) to surpass £150m earned through the TCM. And yet, perhaps the most brow-raising stat within these pages: she has never had an overall Official UK number one.

In fact, Donaldson has rarely come close—her nearest encounter was a second-place finish way back in 2001 for her and illustrator Axel Scheffler’s World Book Day title The Gruffalo Song (Macmillan Children’s), but it was edged out by Ian Whybrow and Tony Ross’ fellow WBD outing Little Wolf’s Postbag. Donaldson doesn’t even claim the children’s top spot that often, earning just nine category poles since BookScan records began. Meanwhile, young whippersnapper David Walliams (greatly aided by Ross) has chalked up an impressive 43 overall and 139 children’s top spots since first being published 10 years ago.

Donaldson’s strength is her backlist. She had 703 separate editions sell through the TCM in 2018; just three authors eclipse that, only one of whom is living (Roger Priddy, on 761). In 2018, 83 Donaldson editions earned £10,000 or more. The only author close is Fiona Watt (62), with James Patterson a distant third (33).

Like our Rankin versus Sansom head-to-head, we are not exactly comparing like-for-like when we look at Donaldson and Walliams. Donaldson operates in the Picture Book and Pre-school markets, which have lower price-points and higher volumes. Rowling (at £310m) has more than doubled Donaldson’s all-time TCM value, but The Gruffalo author is within relative touching distance in volume terms: 30.6 million units sold, to Rowling’s 38.7 million. Walliams, who publishes primarily in Children’s Fiction and is particularly strong in hardcover, earns far more per book: his all-time average selling price is £5.74, compared to Donaldson’s £4.51.

Both authors are, of course, extremely valuable to their publishers. Walliams was responsible for 12 of HarperCollins’ top 20 titles by volume in 2018, with the £17.1m he earned last year accounting for 44% of HarperCollins Children’s TCM value, and 13.2% of the overall group’s. Donaldson was responsible for 55% of the just over 2.9 million units Macmillan Children’s Books shifted through the TCM Top 5,000 last year and 23% of Scholastic’s £23.6m of BookScan takings.