The Testaments smashes records to sell 103k in first week

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments (Vintage) has soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, with 103,177 print copies sold through Nielsen BookScan's TCM in its first week on sale. It has easily become the fastest-selling adult fiction title of the year, beating E L James’ The Mister (Arrow) by nearly two books to one, and has racked up the biggest launch week for an adult fiction title since Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman (William Heinemann) in July 2015.

The Testaments also scores Atwood’s first ever overall UK number one, defeating Jamie Oliver’s Veg (Michael Joseph) after a three-week run, and her first Original Fiction pole in the BookScan era. Its average selling price of £13.47 is the highest for a number one since Michelle Obama's Becoming (Viking) became the most expensive bestseller of all time for the week of Christmas Day 2018.

Two editions of The Handmaid’s Tale (Vintage) bounced up the Top 50, with the 1996 edition rising 40 places up the chart to eighth, rising 168% in volume week on week to 9,899 copies sold, and the 2017 television tie-in edition joining it in 35th place, bouncing 178% in volume upwards week on week.

At nearly £1.4m earned in five days, The Testaments is instantly the sixth most valuable fiction title of the year, and has helped the print market post its highest value of the year to date, of £31.09m. With 3.3 million books sold in total last week, average selling price was pushed up 5.7% week on week to £9.41, the highest since the week of Super Thursday 2018. In the US, The Testaments sold a record-breaking 125,000 copies in all combined formats in its first week on sale, according to Penguin Random House US. 

According to Bookstat, which estimates sales totals for e-books and audiobooks based on the movement of titles in the bestseller list, The Testaments sold close to 30,000 e-books, and a further 14,000 audiobooks, in the UK.

Commenting on the sales, Vintage m.d. Richard Cable said: "Publishing Margaret Atwood’s extraordinary novel The Testaments has been an enormous pleasure and privilege for everyone involved at Vintage. We are thrilled to see this response to her work from readers, who have helped propel it to the top of the charts; making it comfortably the biggest hardback fiction title of the year."

PRH UK did not reveal sales for e-book and audio editions of the Booker-shortlisted title, but said The Testaments audiobook edition is the biggest week of sales ever for PRH UK. Hannah Telfer, m.d. at audiences and audio for PRH UK, said: "It’s been amazing to have the opportunity to bring Margaret Atwood’s work to life in audio. From the cameo appearance from Margaret herself which opens the recording through to the brilliant cast of voices, we’re delighted to have been able to help The Testaments reach the ever-growing audience of people whose primary way of engaging with stories is to listen."

Waterstones fiction buyer Bea Carvalho added: "The Testaments is our fastest selling title of the year with 2019’s best day one sales, and with only one week under its belt it has already surpassed lifetime sales of every other hardback fiction title this year. It is, predictably, our current bestseller – a position we’d expect it to hold for some time - and we can confidently predict that it will be our fiction bestseller this Christmas."

Stephen King’s The Institute (Hodder & Stoughton) was the second-highest selling new entry of the week, missing out on the runner-up spot to Veg by just 520 copies. Its volume of 24,639 copies sold is higher than any Original Fiction number one so far this year, but of course, it had to make do with second place in the category chart.

Adele Parks’ Lies Lies Lies (HQ) rose 23% in volume week on week to claim the Mass Market Fiction number one from Jodi Picoult’s A Spark of Light (Hodder). This is the author’s first ever top spot in the category chart.

While Veg held the Hardback Non-Fiction number one for a fourth week, Matthew Syed’s Rebel Ideas (John Murray) was the highest new entry in fourth place, below Ant Middleton’s The Fear Bubble (HarperCollins) and Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson’s Pinch of Nom (Bluebird). William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy (Bloomsbury) and Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers (Allen Lane) also made their debuts in the chart, with some far-too-organised Christmas shoppers already boosting Guinness World Records 2020 into sixth place.

Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt (Picador) claimed its 45th week as the Paperback Non-Fiction number one, as the chart returned an identical top five on the week before.

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's The Smeds and the Smoos (Alison Green) swiped the overall Children's number one, selling 7,852 copies in its first full week on sale. This is the blockbuster author-illustrator duo's first pole in the chart since Zog and the Flying Doctors in September 2017.