Independent UK publishers post record sales despite data gaps

In the UK, four members of the Independent Alliance posted record annual sales in 2021, despite missing the first 10 weeks of sales data due to lockdowns, reports the Bookseller.

Twelve of the 17 members of the Independent Alliance reported sales growth in the final 42 weeks of the year (TCM42) compared to the same period in 2019. Pushkin reported the biggest growth in sales, up 146%, led by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz’s rediscovered 1938 novel The Passenger, which centres on a Jewish businessman on the run in the wake of Kristallnacht. The other independent publishers to post record years were David Fickling (86.1%), Fitzcarraldo (27%) and Swift Press, which posted its first full year of sales.

Faber and Canongate topped the overall sales charts, Faber with £18.9 million (A$36.2m) sales, up 9.3% and led by titles from Sally Rooney and Kazuo Ishiguro; and Canongate with £9.9 million (A$19m), up 59.7%, led by Matt Haig. Fitzcarraldo’s record sales were driven by Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk, who earned 51% of the publishers £632,000 (A$1.2m).

The Independent Alliance’s combined sales place the group as the ‘fifth largest UK publisher’ in 2021, behind Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan and ahead of Bloomsbury.

Category: International news