Dan Brown's Origin makes a strong start in UK bookshops
Dan Brown’s mastery of something like a code for bestsellers has returned to cheer UK booksellers, with more than 100,000 copies of his latest thriller, Origin, sold in the first five days after publication last Tuesday. But while retailers pronounced themselves delighted, there were some indications that his hold on British readers is not quite as sure as it once was – with these figures adding up to only a fifth of the initial success of 2009’s The Lost Symbol.
According to Nielsen BookScan, Origin had amassed 100,095 sales by Saturday. Brown’s publisher, Transworld, said this makes it the fastest-selling original fiction title in the UK since Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman in 2015, which sold 168,455 print copies in its first five days. But the Bookseller pointed out that Origin’s first week UK sales were half those of Inferno, which sold 228,961 copies in its first week in 2013, with Inferno’s sales half those of The Lost Symbol, which sold 551,000 print copies in its first week in 2009. Sign up for the Bookmarks email Read moreThat said, Origin is already one of the top five “most valuable” fiction titles of the year, said the Bookseller, and “a third of the way to toppling Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door as bestselling title of 2017”. Reviews have been warmer than for previous novels, with Peter Conrad in the Observer calling Brown “a Nostradamus for our muddled, crazed and probably terminal times”, and Sam Leith in the Guardian praising Origin as “fun in its galumphing way”. “Complaining that Brown can’t write is like complaining that crisps are crunchy. And you know what? It doesn’t really matter at all,” Leith decided. “The longer he keeps earnestly plugging away, the more the reader warms to him.” A spokesperson for Transworld said the publisher was thrilled with the “extraordinary” first week of sales. “Origin has been No 1 in ebooks all week. More than 14,000 audio sales in that same week make probably the biggest first-week sales ever in this format. Transworld are anticipating a really strong second week of sales and chart-busting figures for the rest of the year.” Booksellers backed this up. “Our sales are ahead of expectation and are holding up strongly. Early indications are that they will be more spread out than we’ve seen with previous Dan Brown titles and not so stacked around publication week. We’re anticipating another boost in the run-up to Christmas,” said Waterstones’ Chris White. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/11/dan-browns-origin-makes-a-strong-start-in-uk-bookshops At Foyles, Jasper Sutcliffe said: “Origin has done amazingly. We’ve grown sales on Brown’s previous titles and our market share … He’s still a standout name for thriller fiction. He appeals to both men and women, which guarantees strong sales.” |
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