Digital Bestseller Lists: Bookstat figures point to e-boost

Claire McGowan's The Other Wife once again claims the top spot for the Bookstat e-book top 10, in the chart for the week ending 26th April, with Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare and Harriet Tyce’s Blood Orange holding firm for a third week in second and third place respectively. Fiona Gibson’s The Mum Who Got Her Life Back, which rose to fourth place, may have offered some escapism to locked-in parents during the longest Easter school holiday on record.

Of course, Bookstat’s estimated sales figures are based on usual buying habits and Hachette’s confirmed numbers for its titles in the chart last week were far above the Bookstat estimation (see Clarification, bottom). This points to an unprecedented—what isn’t, these days?—spike in e-book sales during the lockdown.

Meanwhile, the Publisher E-Book Ranking, covering the week ending 18th April, crowned David Baldacci’s Walk the Wire in its first week on sale. It is the veteran crime author’s first number one in the e-book ranking, though it’s his 42nd appearance in the chart. Giovanna and Tom Fletcher’s The Eve Illusion also entered the e-book chart, in the same week it topped the Original Fiction top 20 in hardback format.

Clarification: Hachette has stated that The Flatshare sold 22,076 units; Blood Orange shifted 17,881; and In Five Years sold 8,978 copies.