From tales of alienation to comforting novels set in bookshops, Japanese authors have written nearly half of this year’s bestselling translated novels in the UK. What’s their secret?• Read an an exclusive Q&A with Haruki MurakamiAnyone who has been in a bookshop in the last few years will have noticed that Japanese fiction is experiencing an extraordinary boom. In 2022, figures from Nielsen BookScan showed that Japanese fiction represented 25% of all translated fiction sales in the UK. The dominance is even more striking this year: figures obtained by the Guardian show that, of the top 40 translated fiction titles for 2024 so far, 43% are Japanese, with Asako Yuzuki’s satirical, socially conscious crime novel Butter topping the list. Butter also won the breakthrough author award at this year’s Books Are My Bag readers awards, which are curated by booksellers and voted for by the public.The popularity of modern Japanese fiction is not a new phenomenon in the UK, of course. In the 1990s, two writers broke through and became cult hits in this country. Haruki Murakami, a worldwide literary phenomenon, took off in Britain when Harvill Press published The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in 1998. Scott Pack, who ran Waterstones’ buying team in the early 2000s, is a big Murakami fan and remembers giving him “lots of attention. Whatever books of his came out, we got massively behind.” This week, Murakami publishes his 15th novel The City and Its Uncertain Walls, about a man who travels... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-23 09:00:37 UTC ]
Pavilion imprint Batsford has a 500,000 first print run for colouring book Millie Marotta's Tropical Wonderland, to meet retail orders around the world. The book, released today (25th June, £9.99), is the follow-up to Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom, which has been translated into 30 languages... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E L James’ Grey (Arrow) has become the fastest-selling adult paperback in the UK since records began, smashing the previous record by almost 270,000 copies, while selling nearly 650,000 physical and digital units in just three days on sale. Grey shifted 385,972 print units Thursday through... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors and book reviewers have hit out at national newspapers for shrinking the amount of editorial space given over to children’s books, despite huge growth in the market. In the UK, the children’s sector (including teen and YA titles) is the fastest-growing area of the market: sales grew... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Victoria Hislop has retained the top spot on the UK Official Top 50 for the second consecutive week while Paula Hawkins continues to close in on Dan Brown’s record for most weeks as an Original Fiction number one. Hislop’s The Sunrise (Headline) sold 28,450 copies last week through Nielsen... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Victoria Hislop proved tougher than the American Sniper, with the British author’s newest release seeing off a single-channel promotion to earn her first number one in six years. Hislop’s The Sunrise (Headline) sold 26,055 units through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market in its first week... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Marian Keyes has notched her tenth UK Official Top 50 number one, returning to the pole position for the first time in over two years. Keyes’ The Woman Who Stole My Life (Penguin) sold 24,139 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, an impressive 27% rise on its first week... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Green’s "The Fault in Our Stars" was the top-selling ebook in 2014, according to data just released by PubTrack Digital, a unit of Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Green's The Fault in Our Stars was the top-selling ebook in 2014, according to data just released by PubTrack Digital, a unit of Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite the much-discussed 15% drop in Christian fiction print unit sales from 2013 to 2014, as reported by Nielsen BookScan, publishers aren’t sounding the category’s death knell yet. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Clinton Cash' and 'Selfish' both landed in the top 15 adult nonfiction bestsellers, according to data released by Nielsen BookScan on Wednesday. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lee Child and Paula Hawkins gave Transworld two fiction number ones last week, with Child nabbing his 11th top spot on the Official UK Top 50 since records began. Child’s 19th Jack Reacher book, Personal (Bantam), sold 31,994 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, shifting... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A third "Robert Galbraith" novel featuring detective Cormoran Strike, Career of Evil, will be published by Little, Brown this autumn, it has been confirmed. No precise publication date has yet been revealed. The first in the series authored by J K Rowling, The Cuckoo's Calling, was published... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books rose 3% in the quarter ended April 5, 2015, compared to the first quarter of 2014, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Specs Who Anna Chlumsky Age 34 Claim to fame Stars as Amy on HBO's Veep (Season 4 premieres April 12 at 10:30 p.m.); currently appearing on Broadway in the play Living on Love (through Aug. 2) Base New York Twitter @AnnaChlumsky What's the first information you consume in the morning? I check... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2015-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon and Schuster Children’s Books has bought a new title in the Underpants series from author and illustrator team Claire Freedman and Ben Cort. The series was launched in 2007 with Aliens Love Underpants and includes titles such as Dinosaurs Love Underpants and Monsters Love Underpants,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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World Book Day titles claimed nine of the coveted positions in the Top 10 in the most successful WBD week since 2012. A combined total of 339,133 copies of the 10 books published to celebrate the annual charity reading event (held on Thursday 5th March) registered through Nielsen BookScan in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Founded in 2013, Peru's Animal de Invierno is drawing attention for its bold new fiction titles and literary translations. The post Peru’s Literary Publisher Animal de Invierno Strides Ahead appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Serpent’s Tail is to bring out a novel by Karen Joy Fowler, Sister Noon, which appeared in the US in 2002 but which has never been published in the UK before. The indie publisher had success last autumn with Fowler’s Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel We Are All Completely Beside... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As the cultural debate over the film American Sniper continues to swirl, the book on which it is based held the top three spots on the print bestseller list last week, according to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The self-help and graphic novels categories had the fastest growth in print book unit sales among adult segments in 2014, posting gains of 15% and 13%, respectively, compared to the previous year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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