Weekly E-Ranking: Hunter becomes the hunted

Cara Hunter has blasted into the Weekly E-Book Ranking number one with In the Dark—not a bad return for her first appearance in the Bookseller's weekly e-book top 20. The crime title swipes Penguin Random House its first number one since Jojo Moyes’ Still Me in early February, ending a 23-week dry spell for the publisher.

Hunter broke into the print top 50 earlier this year with her début Close to Home. A Richard and Judy Book Club pick for winter 2018, it sold nearly 100,000 copies in paperback. Alongside its e-book success, In the Dark has already sold 8,588 copies in paperback.

This year, the Weekly E-Book Ranking has been dominated by Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz—which between them have held first and second place 12 times—and junior-doctor memoir Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt—which, despite never claiming the top spot, has charted 27 times, a record for a non-fiction title. After a fortnight in the chart’s podium positions, In the Dark has pushed the trio down en masse to second, third and fourth.

However, the top 20 was replete with new entries, with six in the chart’s upper half alone. Stephen Leather’s 15th Spider Shepherd title Tall Order hit fifth, with Lisa Jewell’s Watching You, Santa Montefiore’s The Tempatation of Gracie and Gill Sims’ Why Mummy Swears all débuted strongly the same week their hardback counterparts hit the Original Fiction chart (albeit in a different order).

Rachaele Hambleton’s Part-Time Working Mummy was the sole non-fiction new entry, in 20th place, in the same week it débuted in the Hardback Non-fiction chart. Like Sims’ Why Mummy Drinks and Why Mummy Swears, and 2016 hit The Unmumsy Mum, Hambleton’s title was born out of a warts-and-all parenting blog. "Mummy" bloggers seem to drive e-book sales more efficiently than teen YouTubers, who rarely appear in the e-book top 20. Perhaps it’s no surprise: Nielsen research has shown that the demographic most likely to buy e-books are middle-aged women.