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The List of Bestselling Things: Jennie Godfrey’s debut hits the top spot
Jennie Godfrey’s debut novel The List of Suspicious Things (Cornerstone) has risen to the top of the UK Top 50 in its first full week on sale – according to data from Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market (TCM).
Volume increased 18.6% from its launch on the previous week (which included three days of sales) to hit 10,965 copies, making the paperback the only title in this week’s chart to hit the five-figure unit sales mark. The Waterstones bookseller’s performance this week is helped by its appearance in the chain’s Book of the Month promotion, but it has also had a strong performance in independent bookshops appearing in fourth place in the indie bookshop chart.
In a week with few new releases, The List of Suspicious Things manages to topple Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Vintage) from the top of the Mass Market Fiction, where it has been sitting for the past eight weeks since it was announced as the 2024 Booker Prize winner.
The fiction market continued from its strong 2024 performance with Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid (Little, Brown) rising 18.9% to take fifth position in the top 10. With a sales figure of 8,017 units – an impressive 52.6% increase on the same week last year – and three other titles inside the top 50 this week, McFadden’s sales show no sign of slowing down.
Rebecca Yarros’ Iron Flame (Piatkus) sticks at ninth place though sales are down 13% week-on-week.
The charts typically see a “New Year, New You” takeover in January, but so far in 2025 these books are taking a more subtle approach with just three representatives in the Top 10 this year, down from the six in 2024. Leading this is Atomic Habits by James Clear (Random House Business) which rises to second place in the top 50 and taking the top spot in the Paperback Non-Fiction chart (PBNF).
Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s Make Change That Lasts (Penguin Life) – last week’s PBNF number one – sees sales drop 35.3% pushing it down to seventh place in this week’s overall chart.
The more obvious self-help tomes have been replaced with more mindful titles appearing in the Top 10. Cutesy colouring books Girl Moments, Cozy Friends and Little Corner from artist collective Coco Wyo have all risen into the Top 10 this week, with sales of the three rising 25.5% to a combined sales figure of 21,935 copies – all of them almost exclusively sold online.
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Last week’s number one – Nathan Anthony’s Bored of Lunch: Six Ingredient Slow Cooker (Ebury Press) drops to third overall, but maintains its position at the top of Hardback Non-Fiction by moving 9,712 units. It is a drop of 37.2% week-on-week, but does see sales cross the 100,000-copy mark in its sixth week.
This week’s highest new release – and the only newcomer in the UK Top 50 – is The House of My Father from Shari Franke (Gallery). Franke’s memoir of the abuse she endured at the hands of her mother – vlogger Ruby Franke – has sold 3,607 copies, taking it to seventh place in the Hardback Non-Fiction and 37th overall.
Sales of Butter by Asako Yuzuki and translated by Polly Barton (Fourth Estate) have slid 39.5% this week to 6,008 copies, a number that still keeps it at the top of the Original Fiction chart – more than 2,000 copies ahead of second placed We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Viking) – but means it drops 10 positions to 15th place in the overall UK Top 50.
The bestselling children’s title this week is Big Jim Begins by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic) which returns to first place with 4,149 copies sold – a decline of 41.8% compared to the previous seven days – sitting it just ahead of Jonty Gentoo (Alison Green) from picture book titans Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, which manages to nearly double its sales to 4,069 copies.
Volume sales across the TCM have dropped 11.9% this week 3.1 million books sold, while the value has dropped 11.5% to £28.8m. Year-on-year volume has 1.3% with a slight value increase of 0.2%.
