The Bookseller Arrives

Added on 24 September 2010

The Bookseller arrives, bringing with it the usual waves of depressing news about a) how badly the publishing industry is doing and that we're all doomed, and conversely, b) how well individual authors are doing, with fabulous book sales, or fabulous deals through fabulous agents for fabulous first-time writers, none of whom are me.

The well-known author, Rev Tony Blair, has now sold 175,694 copies of his recent memoir. I doubt anyone ever does a poll on how many of those 175,694 will get all the way through it, but it might be illuminating. So far, three weeks in, it is sadly showing slightly longer legs than Peter Mandelson's thing from last month. Perhaps the reading public are being sucked in by that well-quoted passage of Tony and the missus having sex because John Smith had died. Or whatever it was.

Significantly, only 428 people have listened to the Mabel Rankin Beat Quartet's farewell song to Tony Blair, which at £0.00 for a listen is a lot cheaper than his memoir, and written with far greater eloquence and panache.

Stepehn Fry is number one in the chart, with sales for this week at 37,507, so a bit short of the Reverend's monster first two weeks. Isn't it wonderful and extraordinary how something in the region of 50% of the news items in the British media include Stephen Fry's opinion on the story? What he thinks is news, and he seems quite happy to comment on absolutely everything. We trust him because we've never elected him to anything. Long may it continue, although I must admit I missed what he thought of Scotland's 2-1 triumph over Liechtenstein.

Other points of note: the bestselling book currently in the Top 50 is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which has so far sold 1,151,132 copies, plus a further 334,457 copies for the film tie-in version. This morning in Tesco, there was a girl with a Nike tattoo on her heal, and I thought of a book title.

So far, no Long Midnight Publishing title has cracked the Top 50.

Current Amazon rankings for all Long Midnight Publishing titles are as follows (being a bloke, I need statistics):

The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson 29,564

The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson (Kindle) 19,792

The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson 292,041

A Prayer for Barney Thomson 87,439

The King Was In His Counting House 79,085

The Last Fish Supper 27,923

The Haunting of Barney Thomson 328,265

The Final Cut 327,541

Lost in Juarez 77,594

Lost in Juarez (Kindle) 15,650

Imminent greatness awaits...