Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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UK book sales up 30% as bookshops reopen

In the UK, almost 4 million books were sold in the first six days after bookshops reopened last week, an almost 30% jump on the same week last year, reports the Guardian.

Bricks and mortar bookshops in England reopened on 15 June after closing in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Nielsen BookScan, 3.8 million print titles were sold in the week ending 20 June, for a value of £33 million (A$59.7m). Both volume and value were up 31% compared to the same week in 2019, despite bookshops in Scotland and Wales remaining closed over the period.

Nielsen BookScan had not been able to report sales figures since 21 March, due to the ‘unprecedented temporary closure of bookshops’. For the week ending 20 June, Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Bloomsbury) sold 34,215 copies, making it the bestselling title for the second week in a row after Eddo-Lodge became the first Black British author to top the UK’s overall book charts the previous week.

 

Category: International news