Man Booker sales numbers

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Lest this be overlooked in all the excitement over Anne Enright’s Man Booker victory this week, sales of the Man Booker finalists paints a disappointing picture of what’s going on in bookselling. In various articles about Enright’s win, recent sales numbers of the novels on the shortlist were cited, based on tracking by Nielsen Bookscan. Here’s the report:

‘On Chesil Beach’ by Ian McEwan: 120,362
‘The Gathering’ by Anne Enright: 3,253
‘Darkmans’ by Nicola Barker: 11,097
‘Mister Pip’ by Lloyd Jones: 5,170
‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ by Mohsin Hamid: 4,425
‘Animal’s People’ by Indra Sinha: 2,589

It is likely that these figures account for sales in Britain alone because not all of the titles--Sinha’s and Barker’s (the cover of the forthcoming American edition is shown here), for instance--have been published in the United States. One wonders what U.S. publication of the other titles might do for sales, though it is hard to imagine it would help all that much. These sales numbers offer another perspective on recent complaints by Man Booker chairman Howard Davies about professional reviewers. You may recall that, in announcing Enright’s win, he used his speech to criticize book reviewers for treating too gently established writers when their works are disappointing. We all know that the market for serious literature is a small one--some publishers lament that it is not just small but shrinking constantly. Maybe it is easier to dispense with glowing reviews when you feel that the cause of reading is at stake? That doesn’t excuse reviewers for ‘going easy’ on the big names, but if the publishing world seems to be in crisis, it is may be easier to lose perspective and misunderstand one’s role as a reviewer. More fallout from Davies’ comments, I’m sure, is coming.

Nick Owchar