Written by | Xu Yuedong
According to The Guardian, the amount of time Spent reading books in the UK has doubled over the past two years during the lockdown, from 3-5 hours a week to 6 hours. During the pandemic lockdown, books such as crime, weight loss, self-improvement, cooking, children' and romance novels were loved by British readers.
Despite the closure of bookstores, disruption of the supply chain for books, disruption of book distribution, cancellation of literary festivals, and inability to hold live lectures and book clubs, UK book sales are still up 5% year-on-year by the end of 2020. According to data released by Nielsen BookScan, sales of books in the UK have remained on an upward trend this year. Among them, the sales of adult novels increased by 8%, selling 147 million copies, and the sales of children's books increased by 7%, with 109 million copies sold. Meanwhile, UK readers spent £1.8 billion on books, with e-book sales soaring, up 16% year-on-year and audiobook sales up 21% year-on-year.
Bestseller during the lockdown, image from The Guardian.
Hannah Bourton, director of publishing at Viking Press, said that during the epidemic, people have real time to read, to escape from reality, to hide in different stories. Phoebe Morgan, editorial director of Harper Collins Publishing Group, said: "The pandemic sounds terrible, but it's a good opportunity for us. "Especially in the market space, obviously, there are times when things get difficult — especially for authors." But it turns out that there is more interest in reading than ever before during the pandemic. ”
Museums, galleries, theatres, cinemas and music venues were closed during the lockdown, and books became a temporary refuge. Philip Stone of Nielsen Consulting found that before the first lockdown was imposed in the UK, there was a brief spike in physical book sales, which may have been a "panic buy" where people wanted to buy books before they were grounded to read at home.
What books do Brits like to read during the pandemic? On the major best-seller lists, Richard Osman's speculative fiction "The Thursday Murder Club," Sophie Hinchliffe's "Mrs Hinch," children's book author David Walliams, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter first three, and Sally Rooney's "Mrs." Normal People" and so on appear frequently.
In addition, due to the disruption of traditional sales channels by the epidemic, the algorithms of online sales platforms such as Amazon and the recommendations of Tesco supermarkets have greatly affected the direction of readers' book selection. Among them, delia Owens's "Place where the Cockroaches Sing" has thus become a phenomenon during the epidemic.
Staying at home during the epidemic has also made people pay more attention to thriller novels. According to The Guardian, novels related to "Room Puzzle Solving" sell well. Such bestsellers include Lucy Foley's The Guest List and Catherine Cooper's The Chalet. These novels often take place in remote, unknown places. Since everyone is locked up in their own house and cannot go anywhere else, this type of novel satisfies the reader's fantasy.
Richard Osman's speculative fiction Thursday Mystery Club has sold more than a million copies in the UK and has launched a sequel, which has been bought by Director Spielberg for the film rights. Osman himself was a television celebrity, so the success of his novels was not unexpected.
Richard Osman, image from The Guardian.
Penguin Classic Jessica Harrison says classic books have also been selling well over the past 18 months. For example, Anna Katerina, Don Quixote, and David Copperfield all saw significant sales growth in 2020. Among them, Camus's "Plague" increased sales by 1,000% during the epidemic, and Defoe's "Plague Age" was also a very good seller.
However, Bookseller Weekly found that despite the success of the UK book industry during the pandemic, 63% of authors still lost their income in 2020, first and foremost by unknown authors and debut authors. Many debut authors lost the opportunity for publishers to organize promotional activities for them during the lockdown, and they did not receive the attention they deserved.
In addition, travel books have taken a serious hit during the pandemic. During the first lockdown in the UK, sales of travel guides fell by 90%, although most sales have now recovered. Bookseller Carvalho said, "Ever since we welcomed back customers again, we've felt the power of our own books to recommend, which algorithms can do." ”
Reference Links
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/11/cosy-cookbooks-and-a-surprise-hit-what-weve-really-read-in-the-pandemic
Edit | Liu Yaguang
Proofreading | Liu Jun