Nielsen BookScan sales data tracking team has released a report studying the effects of the Booker bump in the UK. Novelist Julian Barnes saw a 473 percent increase in sales the week after he won the prize for The Sense of an Ending–jumping from 2,535 copies to 14,534 copies.
Oddly enough, sales for the entire Booker longlist saw sales rose week after the announcement, proving that winning isn’t everything. Follow this link to read free samples of all the books on the longlist.
Here’s more from the release: “Looking at the sales of the entire longlist the impact following the announcement of the shortlist in week 36 is clear – combined sales of all titles jumped from 9,285 the week preceding the announcement to 21,499 the following week, an increase of 132%. The announcement of the winner has a similarly positive effect on sales. Sales of all longlist titles grew from 17,829 the week before the award announcement to 35,781 the following week, representing an increase of 101%.”