Picture of Book Trade in Oz

BookTrack now tracks approximately 70% of the Australian book trade, recently expanding its retailer coverage to include Borders, David Jones, QBD and Big W. Its research shows that the top five categories purchased during the w/e December 8 were children's books, general fiction, food & drink, autobiographies and biographies, and sport.

By individual title, Bryce Courteney's recently published book, 'Four Fires', has taken over the number one position from 'Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone', driven by heavy discounting (40% off) by some retailers. Sales of 'Lord of the Rings' (the new film tie-in edition) has doubled over the last week as consumers prepare for Christmas and the upcoming movie release.

In the food and drink category, the results show that Donna Hay's new title 'Off the Shelf' continues to outsell other celebrity chefs this Christmas, including Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. Warwick Todd's 'Goes the Tonk' entered the BookTrack Top 5000 at position 571 mid November. In four weeks the book has surged to number 11 on the list, selling over 5,000 copies in one week.

'Australians spent $23.9m on books and purchased 1,216,954 books during the week ending December 8, 2001', commented Kirsty Ward, client service manager, BookTrack Australia. 'We expect sales to boost even further leading up to Christmas, with possible increases of at least 30% on early December sales.'

BookTrack is the joint sales tracking venture between ACNielsen and J Whitaker & Sons, operator of the BookTrack service in the UK. BookTrack Australia collects transactional sales data from over 1,000 booksellers nationwide and produces a weekly Top 5000 best seller chart for the Australian book industry.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

• Nielsen Media Research Australia
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