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Jasper Fforde has himself reported about the bestseller lists, but I thought it would be interesting to give you some more details.
On The Bookseller’s bestseller list for the week ending 5th July 2003, The Well of Lost Plots was on position 10 on the list for original fiction. He sold 1591 copies that week (compared to HP5 which sold 25407 copies during the same week). I don’t think Internet sales are included here.
On the list for the week ending 12th July 2003, WOLP was on position 15 and had sold another 1570 copies.
I don’t know if he stayed on the list for the next week (haven’t got that issue of The Bookseller yet).
The data in the Bookseller does include internet sales - it comes from BookScan - it also includes all the main high street bookshops, supermarkets, travel shops (railway and airport) etc. I work for BookScan, doing the charts for the newspapers, radio and TV though not for the Bookseller - we just sell them the data. I'm sure that I put some stuff about the Bestsellers in another thread - but now can't find it!
He dropped out after then- original fiction is all new hardback and paperback fiction titles with a RRP of £8.50 and above - there are a lot of them about. The edition making it into the charts was the paperback one.
The next charts are out tomorrow so I'll know around 1pm what the latest monitored sales are.
Thanks, Auntysassy, for explaining it all! I just happened to see the lists when I was back at office today and thought I should share the information in case it hadn't been posted earlier.
Interesting to know the details you are describing. I hadn't expected Internet sales to be a part of the sum.
Try www.nielsenbookscan.co.uk - updated every Tuesday evening (or should be!) with the latest Top 100 all titles and breakdowns in a few categories as well.