A recent spate of poetry-related material has driven poetry sales in the U.K., selling copies of books that had languished on national shelves.
According to Bookseller, the BBC’s Poetry Season project actually motivated people to go to the bookstore. The multimedia series–with video interviews, articles, and a long list of poetry specials–generated a 92 percent increase in sales of Sylvia Plath poetry and a 300 percent increase in sales of John Donne (pictured, via) poetry.
Here’s more from the article: “According to Nielsen BookScan, sales of John Milton’s Paradise Lost increased three-fold during the week following Armando Iannucci’s analysis of the poem on BBC2 on 27th May, while sales of John Murray’s £20 volume, The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown, have increased by 844.4%, thanks to the poet’s ‘Hamnavoe’ being highlighted on BBC4’s ‘Poet’s Guide to Britain.'”