Saturday 28 November 2020

Quick round up of book sales

 

They say global sales of printed books by UK publishers dropped by 55m in the first six months of the year. But COVID has done well for the ebook. Sales of ebooks went down each year from 2014 but this year sales are up by 17% to £144m. UK publishers expect ebooks to enjoy their best year since 2015, when sales were just under £300m.

Sales of audiobooks surged 42% in the first half of the year– on track to beat the record set last year. The combined £199m first-half sales of the two formats has set UK publishers up for their best-ever year for digital sales and is expected to beat 2019’s record total of £336m.

OTOH, the printed book, which accounts for more than a 80% of the total £2bn market for books from UK publishers, is not doing so well.

In the UK, sales of all printed books fell 11%. Paperback fiction sales managed to stay level at £114.8m and hardback fiction has sales up 35% which shows that UK readers have turned to novels for entertainment, escapism and comfort during the pandemic.

Top five bestselling ebooks from UK publishers (Jan – June, 2020)

Normal People – Sally Rooney

The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides

Blood Orange – Harriet Tyce

The Flatshare – Beth O’Leary

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Top five bestselling fiction titles – print (Jan – June, 2020)

The Mirror and the Light, The Wolf Hall Trilogy – Hilary Mantel

Normal People – Sally Rooney

The Family Upstairs – Lisa Jewell

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Big Sky – Kate Atkinson

Sad to admit, but I have read none of them!

Friday 20 November 2020

Mailchimp Woes

  It's make your mind up time. 

Mailchimp want to close the account I have not used in 23 months, which is fair enough. I got the first newsletter out successfully, but then could never figure out how to send the same format with a newer message! Call me Mailchimp challenged!

I get twinges of guilt for all those lovely people who signed up to receive and then - after the initial letter - nothing. You have my apologies, wherever you are. I really should try again before the seven days are up.

In 7 days time my new novel will be published on Amazon, so I am  looking at my hit-and-miss PR methods with a view to improving them. Facebook seems to be going down and really makes it hard to read things because of the adverts. Twitter is good  and I haven't explored any of the other things available these days. Mailchimp ought to be good for me, if only I can master it. Time to get going, perhaps?

 

Tuesday 10 November 2020

Mozart's balls for sale

 My mini needs an MOT, my driving licence needs renewing and its that time of year for the road tax to be renewed. I always forget, dh reminds me and then there is a frantic rush to get it all done before the deadline.

We are off to Hexham this afternoon to visit our favourite vet. Tim's ear has to be checked, and we're hoping it will be OK. This picture is any old street in Hexham. I chose it because it is pretty typical with its stone walls and trees. Very different to other towns around the world. I know it is different to America and Australia, perhaps not so different from France, Germany I cannot say as I've never been there except a Christmas trip to Munich. My memories of that are wandering the Christmas Fairs and the vast quantities of Mozart's balls for sale.

At least there has been some good news this week: Trump is gone, or will be soon and we have a vaccine against Covid -19. Remembering the thalidomide babies, I only hope it is safe to take for everyone. As for Trump, I wonder why the Americans let the outgoing president hang on for two whole months. Here, the removal van is at the door of No 10 the moment the result is known. A person can do a lot of damage in two months if he so chooses. Better to get them out, for both parties.




To my shame...

The Best Books of 2023: Historical Fiction (according to Waterstones.) The Fraud by Zadie Smith Taking inspiration from a real-life ninetee...