Amazon Charts: The Testaments jumps the gun

Margaret Atwood's The Testaments (Vintage) tops the Amazon Charts: Most-Sold Fiction chart, a week ahead of its publication, with the Booker-shortlisted title the most pre-ordered book in the chart. It beat Lee Child's fifth Jack Reacher title, Echo Burning (Transworld), to the Most-Sold pole, after the thriller's e-book was discounted to £1.99.

Dystopias seemed to pique the bookbuying public's interest last week, with The Handmaid's Tale and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (both Vintage) also featuring in the Most-Sold top 20 for the week up to 8th September.

The Most-Read: Fiction chart was once again topped by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Pottermore/Bloomsbury)—which notched up more Audible listeners than Kindle readers last week—followed by the rest of the original Harry Potter seven. Perhaps the reason Order of the Phoenix has managed to maintain the top spot for so long is because it's notably longer than the rest of the series, with its audio length coming in at 29 hours and 39 minutes.

The Handmaid's Tale also made its debut in Most-Read, after spending three weeks in the Most-Sold list—no doubt Atwood fans wanted the original fresh in their mind before they crack into The Testaments. In print, the paperback edition returned to the Top 50 last week through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market, rising 68% in volume week on week.

The current number one through BookScan, Jamie Oliver's Veg (Penguin), rocketed into the Most Sold: Non-Fiction number one, earning the "unputdownable" tag—Kindle and Audible consumers finished Veg faster than any other book in the chart.

Hans Rosling's Factfulness (Sceptre) was the highest new entry, after its Kindle edition spend a brief period at 99p. Michael Owen's Reboot (Reach) also entered the Most-Sold chart in 13th place, though the tell-all memoir has currently earned an equal amount of five-star and one-star reviews on the site—which indicates some Newcastle fans are buying it.

Michelle Obama's Becoming (Penguin) racked up an eighth week as the Most-Read: Non-Fiction number one, with the Audible edition once again doing the heavy lifting.