Christmas predictions: Tim Gott from Devonport Bookshop

Friday, 29 November 2019 Books+Publishing

In the lead-up to Christmas, the busiest time of year on the bookselling calendar, Books+Publishing is asking booksellers across the country to predict their biggest sellers and surprise sellers.

In this first instalment for 2019, Devonport Bookshop owner Tim Gott offers his Christmas predictions.

Fiction

We are huge fans of The Wife and the Widow by Christian White (Affirm) and are expecting this to be a top seller for Christmas. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood (A&U) and Dead Man Switch by Tara Moss (HarperCollins) are both staff favourites and we expect them to sell well.

Nonfiction

When All is Said & Done by Neale Daniher (Macmillan) is already flying off the shelves closely followed by Against All Odds by Craig Challen and Richard Harris (Viking). We’re also expecting Flea’s Acid For The Children (Headline) to be a popular Christmas pick.

Cookbooks

Matthew Evans’ The Commons (Hardie Grant) is already generating strong interest as is Donna Hay’s Week Light (Fourth Estate). We also expect The Fast 800 Recipe Book (Clare Bailey & Justine Pattison, S&S) to have another surge of interest leading up to Christmas.

Art/design

With a strong local interest in alternative design and architecture, both Big Ideas for Small Houses by Catherine Foster (Penguin) and Cabin Porn Inside (ed by Zach Klein, Particular Books) are likely to be among our bestsellers.

Children’s

The Tiny Star by Mem Fox and Freya Blackwood (Puffin) is a beautiful picture book and bound to be a Christmas pick. Malamander by Thomas Taylor (Walker) and Guts by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic) are both proving to be popular and we predict strong sales for both these titles. The recently released Bluey titles, The Beach and Fruit Bat (Puffin) are also going to be enjoyed by many children this Christmas.

Local sellers

Bruny by Heather Rose (A&U) and Paris Savages by Katherine Johnson (Ventura) are both fabulous novels by local authors and ones we have enjoyed, and will be actively hand-selling. We are also predicting that Waterfalls of Tasmania: Day trips to waterfalls by Craig Doumouras (self-published), which has been selling strongly for us in recent weeks, will continue to be in demand leading up to Christmas.

Surprise bestsellers

We have been hand-selling both The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (Michael Joseph) and The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie (Fourth Estate) and have been pleasantly surprised by how well these titles are selling. Primitive Technology: A survivalist’s guide to building tools, shelters & more in the wild by John Plant (Ebury) is a quirky title which is also attracting interest.

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