Startling sales figures reveal Tolkien classic near bottom of charts; purchasing behaviour fails to mirror nation's favourites.
London, November 14, 2003: Startling sales figures released today by Amazon.co.uk--the UK's leading online retailer--reveal a stark contrast between the titles expected to top the BBC's Big Read public poll and actual book-purchasing behaviour.
Amazon.co.uk has revealed sales rankings and percentage-uplift figures for all the titles in The Big Read top 21, to show how sales have faired since the shortlist was revealed to the nation on Saturday, October 18.
While The Big Read's Top 21 leader board, which is based on public opinion, tips The Lord of The Rings to win, with Pride and Prejudice a close second, Amazon.co.uk's own sales rankings for the 21 finalists paint a different picture. The Lord of The Rings and Pride and Prejudice find themselves near the bottom of the Big Read sales rankings, with His Dark Materials and The Catcher in the Rye the real winners at the cash tills.
The Lord of the Rings is yet to be featured on The Big Read programme on BBC Two, so demand could still rise, while Pride and Prejudice is down at 18 in Amazon.co.uk's Big Read sales list, even though Meera Syal promoted it on the October 25 programme. In addition, Catch-22, Rebecca, Nineteen Eighty-four, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Wind in the Willows have all seen major sales increases, making it into Amazon.co.uk's Big Read top 10, even though they have yet to benefit from television exposure.
In Amazon.co.uk's Big Read sales rankings, Birdsong and Great Expectations have seen the greatest uplift in sales since they were announced as Top 21 contenders, with a 1200% and 922% uplift in sales respectively.Bottom of the Pile
The public support for The Lord of the Rings isn't translating into book sales. Experts at Amazon.co.uk have attributed this both to BBC viewers already owning copies of the book and to what they have coined as the "film-franchise factor".
"Sometimes the brand around a book can become bigger than the book itself," commented Fiona Buckland, Amazon.co.uk's Books Editor. "The hype around the movie releases must have influenced voting decisions, with the final instalment, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, due out in December and the first two parts of the trilogy already out on DVD. Members of the public could be voting on their feet as a result of both the cinematic adaptations and the literary version.
"Pride and Prejudice is another great example of this, with many women in Britain visualising Jane Austen's Darcy as Colin Firth, rather than the dashing 19th-century hero she probably had in mind!"
For further information please contact the Amazon.co.uk press office on 020 8636 9280.
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