![]() However, while larger supermarkets do sell books, several chains, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda have abandoned their numbered charts in recent years. Mr Daunt alleged that some leading supermarket chains were among the retailers accepting cash for a spot in their charts. “I’m amazed to find many people don’t know this… Decisions are made carefully by publishers and the stores’ buyers for maximum sales,” said Claire Askew, a poet and crime fiction writer.ĭr Askew added that she had felt “naïve” herself for not realising sooner the ways in which some retailers “curate” their book charts.īut one respected industry insider expressed surprise at the practice, and suggested the public is being misled: “If something says chart, I think 99 per cent of consumers would assume it was exactly that,” they said. ![]() Some have described the deals as an “open secret” in publishing. “As a consequence”, Mr Daunt said, “you get almost no change in the authors that are bestsellers… You get very few new voices coming through.”Īsked about Waterstones’ own charts, Mr Daunt said that in “most” branches they are based on sales data, but added that his booksellers might also promote titles they especially enjoyed. The year before, Waterstones took £27 million ,” Mr Daunt said. “Since I took over in 2011, Waterstones has never taken one penny to place books. Waterstones itself previously accepted millions of pounds each year from publishers to position titles in its “bestseller” charts, but Mr Daunt said he put an end to these deals as soon as he was appointed. James Daunt, managing director at Waterstones, the UK’s largest bookshop chain, said it was commonplace for other retailers to exchange spots in their charts for money. The admission has prompted astonishment from readers and authors, but industry figures, who backed up Mr Pierce’s claim, maintained that such agreements have long been part of the way publishers and retailers do business and should not come as a surprise to the book-buying public. ![]() True bestseller charts based on figures from Nielsen BookScan – which collects point-of-sale data from more than 6,500 UK retailers – are widely regarded as the most accurate reflection of the top selling titles and authors.
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