Much has been made of Liz Truss’s book since its publication a fortnight ago. Jeering critics were quick to mock but Mr S was among the first to note that Amazon actually sold out of copies within 72 hours, such was the demand from punters. And today’s Sunday Times confirms that there is a still keen public interest in what the former premier has to say. For Truss is now number three on the newspaper’s highly-prized bestseller list for general hardbacks, taking the bronze medal behind Salman Rushdie’s harrowing tale of his 2022 assault and, er, RuPaul’s autobiography.
The Sunday Times boasts that its list is regarded as the ‘most accurate and comprehensive estimation of book sales in the country’. And Truss’s appearance at number three will be even more sweeter for her publisher Biteback, given the way the Guardian has tried to rubbish the book’s sales. The paper ran a snarky item on Friday, headlined ‘Liz Truss book enters bestseller list in 70th place with 2,228 copies sold’ – news which naturally precipitated a chorus of orgastic online glee from the usual sneering suspects. Yet, as others were quick to point out, the Graun article was based on a flawed methodology which compared Truss’s hardback sales with other books’ paperback sales.
Hardbacks are more expensive than paperbacks meaning they almost always sell less. Indeed, it’s unusual for any hardback to ever make the top fifty of books sold overall. Still, at least one newspaper knows how to do a fair comparison of like-for-like sales eh?
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