Monster sales continue for Walliams

David Walliams and Tony Ross’ The Ice Monster (HarperCollins) has skated into a fourth week in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 76,945 copies. Despite a drop of 4.6% in volume week on week, the mammoth bestseller continues to rocket up the 2018 bestseller charts—with nearly 365,000 copies sold in less than a month, The Ice Monster is now the fourth-bestselling overall title of the year. 

The Ice Monster’s run in the top spot now matches that of 2017’s Bad Dad, which reigned for four weeks last year before being cut off by E L James’ Darker (Arrow)—then later returned to claim the Christmas number one. Unless Michelle Obama’s sold-out Southbank Centre event in London this week can give her memoir Becoming (Viking) the edge over Walliams, the comedian-turned-author could this year have an uninterrupted victory lap to the festive top spot. 

Lee Child’s Past Tense (Bantam) reclaimed its Original Fiction number one from George R R Martin’s Fire and Blood (HarperCollins), and leapfrogged C J Sansom’s Tombland (Mantle) to become the bestselling hardback fiction title of the year, with 126,000 copies sold in just under four weeks.

Melanie Brown’s memoir Brutally Honest (Quadrille) has spiced up the Top 50, becoming the highest new entry in 17th place. It shifted 11,640 copies in its first week on sale to chart fifth in Hardback Non-Fiction. The category chart’s top four stayed the same as the week before, with only Stephen Hawking and Noel Fitzpatrick switching places—the former First Lady's Becoming was once again resplendent in the top spot for a third week running. 

Sally Rooney’s Normal People (Faber) returned to the Top 50, after it was named Waterstones Book of the Year last week. The title jumped 345% to sell 8,343 copies and hit fifth place in the Original Fiction top 20.  Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent (Serpent's Tail), the last adult fiction title to be named the retailer’s pick of the year in 2016, went on to sell nearly 350,000 copies across all editions.

After a total of 31 weeks in the Paperback Non-Fiction number one spot, Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt (Picador) has finally been defeated. The Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book (Trapeze) shifted 1,544 copies more than the junior doctor memoir to claim the category chart top spot. 

Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre), however, cruised into a ninth week atop the Mass Market Fiction top 20, jumping nearly 10% in volume week on week to 28,144 copies. Since the beginning of the year, the title has sold nearly 400,000 units across all its print editions, and its e-book has barely been out of The Bookseller Weekly E-Ranking’s top five.

The print market rocketed 20% week on week in both volume and value for the last week of November, with value—at £57.07m—beating the same week in 2017 by just £20,673. Average selling price held steady at £8.63 from last week, a 2.5% rise year-on-year. It has not dropped below £8.50 since the third week of August.