Weekly E-Book Ranking: Martin's Obsession fatal for Tattooist

Regular readers of the Weekly E-Book Ranking will be aware of Heather Morris' always-the-bridesmaid status, as the author's début The Tattooist of Auschwitz has charted in second place to Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine a mammoth 10 times. For the week ending 16th June, finally, Morris defeated her Oliphantine nemesis... only to once again find herself in second place, as Honeyman’s HarperCollins stablemate Faith Martin blasted straight into the number one spot.

This is Martin’s Weekly E-Book Ranking début, and what a way to make an entrance. Aside from a one-week stopover for Peter James’ Dead if You Don’t (Macmillan) in mid-May, HarperCollins has now held the e-book pole since early February.

Stuart MacBride’s The Blood Road was the second-highest new entry, with Jacqui Rose’s Toxic just below, in fifth—making four of the top five HC titles. While it is MacBride’s fourth title to chart in the e-book top 20, Rose is another first-timer. In total, HarperCollins had six titles in the ranking, with five in the chart’s upper half.

Sarah Morgan’s How to Keep a Secret became her sixth e-book hit, following Moonlight Over Manhattan’s three-week run last October. Saga writer Dilly Court is another weekly e-book chart regular, though only one of her titles has ever lasted more than a week in the top 20. Maybe The Summer Maiden, which débuted in 10th place, will manage to capitalise on the heatwave.

Nalini Singh’s Ocean Light, part of the paranormal romance author’s Psy-Changeling series, charted in 17th. Its predecessor, Silver Silence, hit 11th place in June 2017. It’s curious how the immense popularity of US paranormal romance and fantasy has never really translated into UK print sales: while Singh has sold over 750,000 books in the US, through BookScan UK’s TCM, her biggest seller has failed to pass 10,000 copies. Yet American authors still seem to find success in “e”—Ocean Light is Singh’s fourth book in a row to hit the e-book top 20, and the likes of Sarah J Maas, Victoria Aveyard and Christine Feehan are chart regulars too.

Week ending 16th June 2018. N = New, U = Up, S = Same, D = Down. Titles with a selling price below £2 are excluded, as are titles priced £4.50 or below with any print versions priced above £17.99. Participating publishers: PRH UK, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Bloomsbury and Simon & Schuster.