Weekly E-Ranking: Atwood dominates in digital format

The charts have surrendered to Margaret Atwood, with The Testaments storming straight to the top of the Weekly E-Book Ranking in its first week on sale. Predecessor The Handmaid’s Tale, which returned to the top 20 the previous week, also zipped up the chart into third place, with second-placed T M Logan’s The Holiday in an Atwood sandwich.

While The Testaments claimed Atwood’s first overall UK number one and her first Original Fiction top spot, the Canadian author is no stranger to the e-book chart. The Handmaid’s Tale racked up a 37th week in the chart, as The Testaments swiped her eighth week at number one. There’s nothing e-book buyers love more than a book of the film or television series, with Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You, Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train and, most recently, George R R Martin’s A Game of Thrones all topping the chart. And The Handmaid’s Tale, already boosted into the e-book top 20 in early 2017 simply because of its similarity to current events, spent seven weeks atop the ranking when the television series began on Channel 4 in late May that year.

Could The Testaments spend as long in the e-book top spot as its predecessor? Possibly, though long-awaited "event" books tend to sell a higher proportion of copies in hardback, despite being more expensive. An e-book bestseller usually benefits more from being part of a cultural moment, such as The Handmaid’s Tale, or simply the word-of-mouth book everyone is talking about (i.e. This is Going to Hurt or The Tattooist of Auschwitz). There’s also the small matter of the impending release of Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth next week, and given La Belle Sauvage is still the only children’s title to hit the weekly e-book number one (thanks to its nostalgic 28-year-old Millennial fans), it’s looking likely that Atwood may have a battle on her hands.

Stephen King’s The Institute, which scored his best ever first week in hardback format—though missed out on the Original Fiction top spot, of course—charted fourth in the e-book top 20, equal to 2018’s The Outsider.

Week ending 14th September 2019. 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, Simon & Schuster, Bonnier Zaffre & Canongate.