The Bookseller - News - Missing ingredients: Christmas run-in hit by slumping big brands

This does not necessarily mean customers in general are buying fewer books because they are baulking at the ratcheted up price. There have been a number of breakthroughs with hefty a.s.p.s this year, including Rory Stewart's Politics on the Edge (Cape) which is the fifth-bestselling adult non-fiction this autumn on 84,000 copies with a meaty £18.88 a.s.p., a mere 14% discount off r.r.p.

But what this overall big brand contraction suggests is pricing becoming a larger factor in certain retail channels. BookScan cannot reveal bookshop market share, but anecdotally Oliver and Walliams, for example, have always had a significant proportion of their success in supermarkets and other higher discounting retailers. By contrast, a book like Politics on the Edge is clearly in the Waterstones/independent bookseller end of the market. In fact, since it was published on 14th September, Politics on the Edge has been a mainstay on The Bookseller's Independent Bookshops Top 20, earning three number ones, placing second four times and never drifting below fifth place.