World Book Day event boosts sales in the UK

In the UK, World Book Day (WBD) titles sales have risen by more than 50% compared to the previous year, with 469,274 copies sold in the week of the event, reports the Bookseller.

The national book event took place on 1 March, and evaluation results released this week and reported on by the Bookseller revealed that the official UK top 10 bestsellers for that week were all WBD titles.

The week also saw children’s sales grow by 22% to £1.4m (A$2.3m) compared with the preceding week.

A large majority of booksellers said the event helped raise interest in their stores, with 87% reporting increased footfall due to the event.

More libraries also participated in the event, with 160 libraries signing up to receive display materials this year, a 10% increase on the number that signed up in 2016. Eighteen percent of participating libraries reported a rise in new membership as a result of the promotion.

WBD director Kirsten Grant said the 2018 plan will be to streamline and ‘focus on a number of key areas’. ‘A challenge we face is that we ask consumers to do a number of different things on and around World Book Day … so [we] are constantly refining these messages, to make them as clear a call-to-action as possible.’

Category: International news