Booksellers excited by Super Thursday big hitters despite fears over supply

Bookshops are geared up for Super Thursday today (14th October), and predict titles from John le Carré, Nigel Slater, Nicola Davies and Onjali Q Rauf will be big hitters. However, there are some concerns about the supply chain, with several booksellers noting delays on getting signed editions. 

With nearly 300 hardback books hitting the shelves today, booksellers are hoping the increased footfall and momentum from Bookshop Day, which brought record sales for some, can be maintained.

Hazel Broadfoot, owner of Village Books in Dulwich, south London, said the supply chain is "a bit ropey at the minute" although she stressed it is not as bad as last spring. She told The Bookseller: "We’ve had slight delays on a few titles, and commonly signed editions are being held up. There are definite delays from most distributors, though Hachette are a shining beacon of what can be done."

She said her team are more worried about reprint times going through to Christmas and have "no confidence that titles going into reprint will come back quickly". She said: "We’re stocking up now on things that we think will be in high demand and whose availability we think might be doubtful."

Jess Allan, manager at north-west London store Queen's Park Books, also said there were issues with signed stock being delayed. She added: "The people I deal with on a day to day basis, our reps, the warehouse, even the publicists desperate to get the books to us for an author signing, they are all working tirelessly and thanklessly attempting to achieve an impossible task. Really it's amazing some books are just a week late.”

Sue Lake, director of White Rose Books in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, said she has been "incredibly lucky" so far with orders coming through on time but worries about the situation in the next three to four weeks when people can tell what titles are taking off. "Reprints may be slow and we may lose some loyalty," she said. "As a small business, we cannot keep multiple copies of all titles or cash flow becomes an issue." However she stressed that so far her team have been impressed with Gardners' ability to "turn orders around even when sent late in the day".

Broadfoot said she felt like Super Thursday has been "going on for weeks" with the success of Sally Rooney, Richard Osman and Justine Picardie. There have been lots of pre-orders at her store for David Attenborough's Living Planet (William Collins) as well as interest in John le Carré's final novel Silverview (Viking) and Nigel Slater's A Cook's Book (Fourth Estate). On the children's side, she predicts An Odd Dog for Christmas by Rob Biddulph (HarperCollins Children's Books) will sell well, and is personally looking forward to A Spotter's Guide to Countryside Mysteries: From Piddocks and Lynchets to Witch's Broom by John Wright (Profile).

Lake said she was looking forwarded to seeing The Song that Sings Us by Nicola Davies (Firefly Press) "as it’s illustrated by the wonderful Jackie Morris and will make a perfect gift". She also highlighted The Fell by Sarah Moss (Picador), which she said would be great title to hand sell. 

Richard Drake, owner of Drake The Bookshop in Stockton-on-Tees, predicted A N Wilson's The King and the Christmas Tree (Bonnier) will be a big hit, while also endorsing "bookshop fave" Nicola Davies. He said this year's Super Thursday was "slightly fractured" with a few "mini" Super Thursdays in recent weeks.

"William Sieghart and Emily Sutton's Everyone Sang (Walker) is already being received very well and there is huge excitement over Alex T Smith's Winston follow-up, How Winston Came Home for Christmas (Macmillan Children's Books)," he said. "The perennial book lover's problem exists even in a bookshop — so many lovely books and not enough space to store them all.” 

Jo Coldwell at Colchester's Red Lion Books said there were some strong children's titles, and expects Onjali Q Rauf's The Lion Above the Door (Hachette Children's) and Gina Blaxill's All The Better to See You (Scholastic) billed as "Red Riding Hood with a twist", will be popular as well as A N Wilson's latest and Wishyouwas by Alexandra Page (Bloomsbury). "Both have charming covers, hardback, and an appealing price point," she added. 

"Our quirky tip is The Panda, The Cat and The Dreadful Teddy by Paul Magrys (HarperNonFiction). We have added a 'warning: explicit content' next to it which is obviously making people curious. For fiction we can't wait to sell The Lincoln Highway  by Amor Towles (Cornerstone). I think Bob Mortimer's And Away... (Simon & Schuster) will keep on selling. He is a lovely man." 

Marie Moser, owner of The Edinburgh Bookshop, said: “Clearly there are some very exciting titles coming out this week. Obviously the new book from J K Rowling is taking up most of the media oxygen but we expect there will also be strong demand for Billy Connolly, Nigel Slater and the John le Carré. Many of the sales at this point are self-purchases, rather than gift buying — so some titles will not really start to sell for another month. It has, however been a delight to watch the excitement caused by major new titles coming out every week since the end of August, with customers specifically visiting to buy the title they have personally been waiting for.” 

Vivian Archer, manager at east London's Newham Bookshop, joked that she was "grateful" there weren't as many books being released on this year's Super Thursday because "so many wonderful books" have already come out in the last month. She also predicts Rauf, le Carré and Slater will perform strongly, and says Bernardine Evaristo's Manifesto (Hamish Hamilton) has been flying off the shelves. "We just can’t keep up with sales of that, it’s amazing," she said. Looking ahead, she thinks Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen's Renegades: Born in the USA (Viking) and Paul McCartney's The Lyrics (Allen Lane) will perform strongly, with lots of pre-orders already coming in. 

Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, owner of The Children's Bookshop in Muswell Hill, north London, also highlighted Davies' latest, praising its "lyrical writing and heartstopping adventure, suffused with a love of the natural world" as well as Rauf's Lion Above the Door. "The Night Bus Hero (Hachette Children's) was one of our bestsellers last Christmas even through lockdown and her new book is a deeply inspiring story of finding the lesser known stories of Indian soldiers in the Second World War. And Onjali will be coming to the bookshop to meet all young fans, which will be a real treat!"

The bigger retailers also reported interest in le Carré and Slater, as well as this year's big autobiographies by Billy Connolly, Tom Daley and Rob Beckett. Bea Carvalho, Waterstones fiction buyer said this year's autumn line up has been "incredibly strong already" with a publishing schedule that appears to be more staggered than in previous years, spreading major releases throughout the autumn. "This week’s Super Thursday still packs a punch and presents booksellers with a welcome moment to celebrate the best of the year’s new writing," she said. "Following the uncertainty of the last 18 months, it is encouraging to have such a strong and exciting list across genres. It bodes well for a successful Christmas period.

"In an extremely strong autumn for fiction, John le Carré’s Silverview and Andrea Camilleri’s Riccardino (Mantle) mark significant and historic moments which allow us to reflect on the incredible careers and works of two true masters of their genre. This week also sees the arrival of Chris Hadfield’s debut crime novel, The Apollo Murders (Quercus), which has performed extremely well on pre-order, a debut thriller from Ant Middleton, and a new standalone from Sophie Kinsella. We are also particularly excited to share the long-awaited print version of Keisha the Sket (Cornerstone) and We Are Not Like Them (HQ) the staggering joint debut from Christine Pride and Jo Piazza which is sure to be one of the year’s most talked about novels.

"In non-fiction, last week saw the release of Dave Grohl’s The Storyteller (Simon & Schuster) set to be the biggest music biography in several years, and it is followed by a suitably stellar selection this week. Billy Connolly’s funny and heart-warming autobiography Windswept & Interesting (Two Roads) has been highly anticipated by readers and is a highlight of the year’s biography line-up. It arrives this week alongside biographies from Tom Daley, Michael McIntyre, Jack Whitehall, and Bobby Gillespie to name a few. Nigel Slater’s A Cook’s Book is surely one of the year’s most beautiful and covetable cookery books, and we expect it to be his bestseller of recent years. We are also hugely excited about Sir David Attenborough’s Living Planet, an update on a true classic of nature writing which should be required reading.

"With The Christmas Pig (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) swooping in early in the week on Tuesday, Thursday follows with a sparkling line-up of children’s books. Just a few of the headline acts that will fly off the shelves through the autumn are Tom Fletcher and Shane Devries’ suitably festive The Christmasaurus and the Naughty List (Puffin) and Liz Pichon’s next instalment to the hilarious Tom Gates series with Random Acts of Fun (Scholastic). Lenny Henry also arrives with his first children’s novel, The Boy With Wings (Macmillan Children's Books), equal parts entertaining and endearing for readers across ages. Over in paperbacks, previous Waterstones Children’s Book Prize winner Onjali Q Raúf returns with The Lion Above the Door, and Benjamin Alire Saenz’s follow-up Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Simon & Schuster) lands to much anticipation."

She added: "There is something for everyone amongst this week’s new titles. After the challenges of shop closures during lockdowns and the shifting sands of publishing schedules, it has been hugely rewarding to welcome customers back into our bookshops: we are thrilled to have so many excellent new titles to recommend to them over the coming months."

Meryl Halls, m.d of the Bookseller's Association, said: “Following on from the incredible Bookshop Day activity on Saturday, we are hopeful that Super Thursday will prove to be a further boost for booksellers as they enter the vital pre-Christmas period. With new titles from John le Carré, Rob Biddulph, Jeffrey Archer, Sophie Kinsella and more, there is plenty to draw in book lovers, and we know that booksellers will be pulling out all the stops to promote these titles, as well as less prominent releases from debut authors and smaller presses.

“While we have seen strong sales in bookshops since the summer, supply chain issues linked to Brexit, driver shortages and Covid restrictions are creating difficulties for booksellers in both the UK and Ireland, which is deeply unhelpful in a period when bookshops are looking to recover from the challenges of the pandemic. The BA is working hard with the wider publishing industry to ease these difficulties as much as possible, and we are sure that booksellers will do everything they can in the meantime to bring readers the releases they are most excited for this Super Thursday.”

Amazon UK also revealed the top 10 pre-ordered books for Super Thursday this week, with Fletcher's The Christmasaurus and the Naughty List taking the top spot, followed by Julia Donaldson's The Christmas Pine (Scholastic), Winter Wedding: Book 2 (The Rockwood Chronicles) by Dilly Court (HarperCollins), The Lord of the Rings: Illustrated Edition by J R R Tolkien (HarperCollins) and Slater's A Cook's Book.

Left You Dead by Peter James (Macmillan) comes in sixth, followed by le Carré's Silverview, At Mama’s Table: Easy & Delicious Meals From My Family To Yours by Rochelle Humes (Ebury), A Class Act by Rob Beckett (HarperCollins), and Connolly's Windswept & Interesting. 

Lisa de Meyer of Amazon Books UK said: “It has been a very different and challenging year for authors and readers alike but we are genuinely excited about the depth and breadth of brilliant books coming out on Super Thursday and in the run-up to Christmas. There is something for everyone, whether you want to practise your puff pastry or lose yourself in a page-turner, so we’re sure the nation will be curling up with a good book this Christmas."