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Impressive first-day sales for ‘Go Set a Watchman’ in UK and US

Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman (William Heinemann) has recorded impressive first-day sales in the UK and North America. In the UK, Penguin Random House announced Go Set a Watchman’s first-day sales exceeded 105,000 copies across print and digital editions, reports the Bookseller. Waterstones MD James Daunt said the retailer’s pre-orders and first-day sales for the title were nearing 30,000 copies. The only other author to have reached 100,000 copies over a week in the UK this year has been ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ author E L James. In the US, Barnes & Noble (B&N) and Book-A-Million (BAM) announced the book had the largest first-day sales of any adult fiction title in the history of both retailers, reports Publishers Weekly. BAM CEO Terry Finley said sales were ‘beyond our most optimistic projections’, while B&N announced sales had topped those of The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown, Corgi), which previously held the largest first-day sales record, and that Go Set a Watchman is likely to be B&N’s biggest seller for the year. Amazon US did not provide first-day sales figures, but stated it ‘was the most pre-ordered print title since the 2007 release of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’. Canadian retailer Indigo also reported that Go Set a Watchman had ‘the biggest first-day sales of the past three years’. Go Set a Watchman is a sequel to Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird and was released simultaneously in 70 countries on the 14 July.

 

Category: International news