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Weekly E-Ranking: Child topples himself with The Hero
It seems that only Lee Child can defeat Lee Child—the crime author’s 24th Jack Reacher title, Blue Moon, has been knocked from the Weekly E-Book Ranking number one by his own non-fiction début, The Hero. Child’s deconstruction of the myth of the hero in modern-day fiction became his first non-Jack Reacher title to chart in the top 20, and his 11th number one in the ranking. Blue Moon slipped to third place, as Adam Kay’s Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas held firm in the runner-up spot.
This year really has been the year for non-fiction selling strongly in e-book format, with Kay’s This is Going to Hurt becoming the e-book chart’s longest-running number one of all time. Though the chart is still dominated by fiction, the likes of Elton John’s Me and Anne Glenconner’s Lady in Waiting—titles that would have been firmly in the hardback camp at this time of year in any other Christmas gift-buying period—have been flying off the virtual shelves too.
New entries may have been thin on the ground in the print charts last week, as the market battens down the hatches ahead of Christmas, but the e-book chart was surprisingly flush with new blood. Nora Roberts charted in fourth place with The Rise of Magick, and crime author J R Ward hit 16th with Where Winter Finds You.
Barbara Taylor Bradford notched up her second new entry to the ranking in as many weeks, with In the Lions’ Den replacing the previous week’s A Woman of Substance. Brandon Sanderson made his first appearance in the chart since 2017’s Oathbringer, with Starsight charting sixth, and Simon Kernick’s Die Alone scored a personal highest ranking for the author, hitting 10th place.
Perhaps Amazon’s other-titles-by-this-author page links were working overtime last week, as four authors doubled up in the top 20. Child and Kay swiped four of the top five spots between them, while Heather Morris’ Cilka’s Journey and The Tattooist of Auschwitz rubbed shoulders in eighth and ninth. Lucinda Riley’s The Butterfly Room and The Sun Sister also both fluttered into the chart.
Week ending 23rd November 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.
