TikTok, Netflix helps drive Aus bestseller charts
Data from industry monitoring group Nielsen BookData shows Australian book sales were up 4.1% in the year to 18 June.
The uptick in sales was driven by a 77% jump in romance titles sales, led in large part by Colleen Hoover’s bestselling It Ends with Us and Ugly Love. According to Nielsen BookData Australia territory manager Bianca Whiteley, the romance category—including Hoover’s titles—were ‘heavily driven by TikTok’, while in children’s books, the Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s ‘Heartstopper’ series helped push the titles to bestseller status.
In other categories, manga was up 27% and adult fiction was up 17.3%.
Top 10 bestsellers YTD
- It Ends With Us (Colleen Hoover, S&S)
- Atomic Habits (James Clear, Random House Business)
- Verity (Colleen Hoover, Sphere)
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Taylor Jenkins Reid, S&S)
- Bluey: Easter Bluey (Puffin)
- Ugly Love (Colleen Hoover, Atria)
- The Love Hypothesis (Ali Hazelwood, Sphere)
- Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens, Corsair)
- The Fast 800 Keto (Michael Mosley, Hachette)
- House of Sky and Breath (Sarah J Maas, Bloomsbury)
Top 10 Australian titles YTD
- Bluey: Easter (Puffin)
- Love Stories (Trent Dalton, HarperCollins)
- The Happiest Man on Earth (Eddie Jaku, Macmillan)
- Apples Never Fall (Liane Moriarty, Macmillan)
- Bluey: More Easter Fun! (Puffin)
- The 10:10 Diet (Sarah Di Lorenzo S&S)
- Bluey: Hammerbarn (Puffin)
- Bluey: Big Backyard (Puffin)
- The Bad Guys #15: Open Wide and Say Arrrgh! (Aaron Blabey, Scholastic)
- The Murder Rule (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
Top 10 Australian titles released in 2022 YTD
- Bluey: Easter (Puffin)
- Bluey: More Easter Fun! (Puffin)
- The 10:10 Diet (Sarah Di Lorenzo S&S)
- Bluey: Hammerbarn (Puffin)
- The Bad Guys #15: Open Wide and Say Arrrgh! (Aaron Blabey, Scholastic)
- The Murder Rule (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
- Ninja Kid #9: Ninja Fish! (Anh Do, Scholastic)
- Weirdo #18: Weird History! (Anh Do, Scholastic)
- Bad Guys: Movie Novel (Scholastic)
- Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone (Benjamin Stevenson, Michael Joseph)
© 2022 Nielsen BookScan. Year to Date covers week ending 8 January 2022 to week ending 18 June 2022.
PRH, S&S antitrust trial wraps up
In overseas publishing news, the US Department of Justice’s antitrust case against the proposed merger of Big Five publishers Penguin Random House has concluded, although a ruling isn’t expected until November.
The New York Times has a deep dive into what the trial revealed about the big business of publishing, including the effects of consolidation on publishing and authors, how publishers decide how much to pay authors and what makes a bestseller. For even more coverage, Publishers Weekly has summaries of each day of the trial here.
Latest awards news
The winners of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards were announced last week.
The winning books in each category are:
Older readers
- Tiger Daughter (Rebecca Lim, A&U)
Older readers: Honour books
- Girls in Boys’ Cars (Felicity Castagna, Pan)
- How to Repaint a Life (Steven Herrick, UQP)
Younger readers
- A Glasshouse of Stars (Shirley Marr, Puffin)
Younger readers: Honour books
- Dragon Skin (Karen Foxlee, A&U)
- Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)
Early childhood
- Jetty Jumping (Andrea Rowe, illus by Hannah Sommerville, HGCP)
Early childhood: Honour books
- Amira’s Suitcase (Vikki Conley, illus by Nicky Johnston, New Frontier)
- Walk of the Whales (Nick Bland, HGCP)
Picture book of the year
- Iceberg (Claire Saxby, illus by Jess Racklyeft, A&U)
Picture book of the year: Honour Books
- Just One Bee (Margrete Lamond & Anthony Bertini, illus by Christopher Nielsen, Dirt Lane Press)
- Stellarphant (James Foley, Fremantle Press)
Eve Pownall Award
- Still Alive, Notes from Australia’s Immigration Detention System (Safdar Ahmed, Twelve Panels Press)
Eve Pownall Award: Honour books
- Heroes, Rebels and Innovators (Karen Wyld, illus by Jaelyn Biumaiwai, Lothian)
- The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Peculiar Pairs in Nature (Sami Bayly, Hachette)
CBCA Award for New Illustrator
- Michelle Pereira for The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name (Sandhya Parappukkaran, HGCP).
For more information about the CBCA Awards, see the CBCA website.
Shortlists have been announced for a host of other awards, including the Australian Society of Authors’ $50,000 Barbara Jefferis Award, the Readings Children’s, YA and New Australian Fiction book prizes, the Margaret and Colin Roderick Award and the Danger Prize for crime writing. To stay up to date with all the latest awards news, subscribe to Books+Publishing here.
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