From Richard Osman and Millie Bobby Brown to the upcoming book by Keanu Reeves, celebrity novels are everywhere. What’s behind the boom? And how do non-famous writers feel about it?I understood that if I was going to do it, I would have to put 100% of myself into it,” says Richard Osman about writing his debut crime novel The Thursday Murder Club, which was an immediate bestseller when it was published in 2020. He had attempted a novel before, but “I wasn’t giving it everything, I had too much on. And this was the first time where I thought: No, I’m able to focus on this for a couple of years now.” Osman’s agent, Juliet Mushens, adds: “He told me he was working on a novel, but he didn’t want to show it to anyone until he finished the whole thing.” When he did, “we did a couple of drafts and submitted it to publishers”. The rest is history: since The Thursday Murder Club was released, Osman has published three further novels and sold more than 10m books worldwide.He is the most successful example of a phenomenon that is more prominent than ever: the celebrity novelist. Of course, famous people have written novels for decades – from Alan Titchmarsh to Ben Elton. And the children’s market has become saturated with celebrities, including David Walliams, Geri Halliwell-Horner, Paul McCartney and Jamie Oliver. But sales of adult fiction by celebrities have remained relatively low, until recently. According to Nielsen BookScan data, in 2018 the Top 100 paperback fiction... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-13 09:00:12 UTC ]
Tony Ross was the biggest selling children’s illustrator in the UK in 2015, with value sales of his books totalling more than £9m, according to data from Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Country singer Dolly Parton is to support a scheme to provide free books for children born in Southwark this year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New study reveals Julia Donaldson, David Walliams and JK Rowling lead the top 1% of authors, who account for nearly a third of all UK book salesThe gap between publishing’s rich and poor continues to widen, as figures from Nielsen BookScan reveal that the top 50 authors account for more than 13%... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The hottest category in 2015 was art/architecture/photography, which had a 60% increase in unit sales in 2015 over 2014 at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Time Out will no longer produce any Time Out Guide Books in 2016, the company has confirmed. After the story was first reported by The Telegraph, spokesperson for the company said the decision had been taken “as part of the continued evolution of the business”. The guides' sales have been in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harper Lee, Marie Kondo, and Jeff Kinney topped the print bestseller lists in 2015 for adult fiction, adult nonfiction, and juvenile books, respectively. Here are the 20 bestselling books of the year in each of those categories. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Regular readers of The Bookseller will be aware of the three trends driving the print renaissance: adult colouring books, clean eating titles and psychological thrillers. Thus far in 2015, total sales are up 6% year on year through Nielsen BookScan, with a good deal of that down to 2015 breakout... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Concerned that screen time is cannibalizing reading time? Consider this: 2015’s top-selling humor book for adults, per Nielsen BookScan, was written by a YouTube celebrity. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week saw an unexpected new title shoot to the top of the U.K's official book charts: "Mog's Christmas Calamity," by children's author Judith Kerr. Aged 92, Kerr has penned a new book featuring "Mog," a cat beloved to generations of British kids but what's really unusual is that she wrote... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2015-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The ability of YouTube personalities to capture readers is writ large if you look at this week’s bestseller list. Three books by YouTube dynamos landed in the top 20 on Publishers Weekly's current overall bestseller list, powered by Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vlogger Zoe “Zoella” Sugg’s second novel Girl Online: On Tour (Penguin) has taken the Official Top 50 number one spot from David Walliams, in a week that saw YouTubers dominate the top of the charts. The sequel to 2014’s Girl Online (Penguin) sold 56,038 copies for £377,813 last week, according... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House Children’s Books’ edition of 'The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep' sold just over 10,000 copies in its first two days on sale, according to data from Nielsen BookScan which tracks about 85% of all print sales. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books rose 2% in the first nine months of 2015, compared to the similar period in 2014, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan, which records about 80%–85% of all print sales. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep' sold about 35,000 copies in outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan last week, a 20% increase over the week that ended August 23. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last year was the best year for sales of graphic novels in the UK since BookScan records began in 1998, with the genre bringing in almost £20.5m worth of print sales. Publishers and retailers are crediting the boom to a broadening of range and a diversification of characters and writers within... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Swedish literary agency Salomonsson has signed Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin, the author of the chart-topping self-published picture book The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep. The book, which Ehrlin created to help parents lull their children to sleep, is currently the second biggest-selling title... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Patterson has jumped to the top of the UK Top 50 chart this week with 14th Deadly Sin (Arrow)—his 21st individual title to reach the summit since Nielsen BookScan’s records began. However, Swedish author Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin has scored a surprise hit with his picture book The Rabbit... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Headline has signed two more books by author and Daily Telegraph columnist Bryony Gordon, including one looking at mental illness. Gordon is the author of The Wrong Knickers, also from Headline and about Gordon’s 20s, which has sold 45,225 copies through Nielsen BookScan to date. Her first new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sphere is to release a new book by Kevin Pietersen this autumn, focussing “squarely” on events on the pitch. Pietersen’s KP: The Autobiography, released last year, has sold 106,654 copies through Nielsen BookScan to date. In the book Pietersen criticised a number of his former England cricket... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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