Independent Alliance records best-ever first half

In the UK, the Independent Alliance (IA) sales collective has, for the first time, placed above one of the ‘big four’ publishers for sales for the year to date, reports the Bookseller. 

The IA—which was formed in 2005 and includes publishers such as Faber, David Fickling Books and Profile—recorded its best-ever first-half performance, with £38.9 million (A$74.6m) sold through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market [TCM] so far in 2024.

Of its publisher league tables, the Bookseller said: ‘we have always noted where [IA] would fall in the top 20, and in the initial 26 weeks of this year it edged past Pan Macmillan (£38.5 million [A$73.8m]) with a nearly 8% jump in TCM sales and earning a market share above 5% for the first time’. 

Among IA members, Faber was up +1.5% to just under £10 million (A$19.8m), David Fickling Books was up 67.8% to £3.8 million (A$7.3m) (74% of which was generated by comics creator Jamie Smart), and Murdle publisher Profile grew 16.8% to bag a TCM half-year record of £6.8 million (A$13.0m).

Pan Macmillan itself ‘had a very strong first-half, up 3.2% against a 2023 that was its second-best return since records began’, said the Bookseller.

Category: International news