Book sales figures & Tough Crowd

[DataPestle]

Anyone in publishing here, with access to Bookscan? I trust Popbitch usually, but am very, very surprised to see their sales figures of 390 for Tough Crowd. I’m wondering if someone’s sent them sales figures for an odd edition (large print, audio) rather than hardback numbers, but does anyone with actual access to Bookscan have info?

It’s possible sales are that bad, but as I say, I would be surprised.

(Bookscan is across all publishers and should include Amazon, supermarkets, independent booksellers, and the publisher’s own sales.)

Graham Linehan has already refuted this on Twitter. The first print run of 10,000 copies has sold out and more are on order.
Popbitch have a strange algorithm issue.

I pre-ordered mine weeks ago, still not received it. Checked and it's awaiting stock. So looks like first run is sold out.

popbitch the gossip site can see book sales?

Thanks @WorriedMutha and @unwashedanddazed - I wonder if Popbitch will write anything about this next week. As I said, they’re usually pretty scrupulous about facts and figures, so this looked disappointing.

@AIstolemylunch The creators and writers of it may have access to platforms like Bookscan, or they might have just been fed that info by an aggrieved party.

Interestingly I've just been told amazon can't deliver my pre ordered copy and can give no prospective date. ..
Is it not counted as a sale till delivered?

I'm another who's ordered (from independent book shop) and not yet had it delivered. I presumed they currently didn't have enough to fulfill all?

As someone said elsewhere it would be statustically very unlikely that just over a quarter of all book purchasers had written a review on Amazon (most very good), so I’m hoping Popbitch will address this.

Eye Books are probably trying to find a printer who can reprint asap for all these back orders. @MichelleScarn I think it’s counted as an order when the money is taken from the customer, but happy to be corrected by publishing sales experts?

in the meantime it's out there being quoted with great glee all over the internet, including in these very pages.

Meh, dumb gonna dumb.

Just to say I bought my copy via Kindle. Are electronic book sales included anywhere?

Just to say I have (with some difficulty) checked the position. Amazon is saying that the hardback is not immediately available (despatched from Eye Books 26 Oct - 7 Nov). On the Kindle website it is coming up as the no 1 best seller in Biographies and Memoirs section, with 102 reviews almost all 5*. Interestingly, I submitted my review a few days ago and it has not been published. It was wholly positive and with nothing anyone could object to - so why?

A lot of people will have bought the e-book version and these are sometimes not accounted for with Bookscan in a timely way. He's 832 in the Kindle UK store at the moment, suggesting he is selling roughly 31 e-books a day at the moment.

The publishers might have shipped 10,000 copies but that doesn't mean they are sold.

I would love to know where my copy is then. I pre-ordered it on Amazon the day it was announced. I'm not the only one who has the date to receive it pushed back to long after people had already obtained it from the publisher directly, then while I was eagerly awaiting it yesterday received an email to say they were having supply issues.

Same @OceanicBoundlessness I'm going to make trip to nearest bookshop tomorrow to buy copy instead and cancel amazon.

Just got mine from Eye Books. Order no was 8000 and something. Ordered mid September. There's probably more than 390 in the library system ffs.

I pre-ordered mine on Amazon in mid September & received it yesterday

10k hardbacks is a significant print run for a book that presumably has no supermarket orders or table support in the major high street booksellers. So I'm guessing that there must have been significant pre-order support for a small indie publisher to commit to that.

Simon Edge, the publisher, has addressed this on Twitter. He was asked by Pink News to confirm sales, unlike Popbitch who just put the wrong info out. He's even put a photo of the first 2000 copies bagged up and awaiting mail collection. He explains that Amazon sales gave the appearance of dropping as they ran out of stock and removed the buy button. This is definitely a non story and the book is flying.
I read it and it's great. It will entertain you and annoy you in equal measure.

Simon Edge says that two print runs have so far run out, which is a fair few more than 340 copies.

https://twitter.com/simonjedge/status/1715334781695660378

It appears to be available on amazon again. I am going to order it from there because I want to be able to review it where it will be seen by as many people as possible. It is very clear that it has sold thousands of copies, at least.

Having posted the above re my copy... just received another saying I'm getting it tomorrow!... odd!

I put up the wrong line above.

https://twitter.com/simonjedge/status/1715319345063092686

They didn't shop that amount.

Ok so they did ship that amount but they haven't sold.

Ok they did ship that amount and they did all sell but .... Anyone know the next move?

Your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries.