The Bookseller reports this week that sales for books on the Man-Booker short list are down from last year, with books that didn't make the list outselling the short-listers.
Emma Donoghue's Room leads the pack, followed by Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question which finally snagged a U.S. publisher (Bloomsbury) and will be released Oct. 12, 2010. Pulling up the rear with lower than expected sales are Tom McCarthy's C, Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room (to be released in the U.S. on Oct. 20, 2010), and Andrea Levy's The Long Song.
Sales last week
Room - 3,451
The Finkler Question - 1,382
Parrot and Olivier in America - 1,088
C - 845
In a Strange Room - 760
The Long Song - 702
Surprisingly, Long-lister Christos Tsiolkas' Slap is out in front for Man-Booker sales this year.
On the low sales side of the Man-Booker long list is Lisa More's February. Sales were so poor, that many firsts were returned to the publisher and pulped, making this probably the rarest book on the list. Firsts-in-Print has an ARC of this title for £30 on their Web site.
I also noticed first editions of Galgut's In a Strange Room are listing for $100+ on Amazon.
Collectors should be looking for first U.K. editions for these titles:
- Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber) - Australian Limited edition (Penguin/Hamish Hamilton Aust:, 2009) is true first: $125 - $225 (signed); U.K. edition (Faber & Faber, London, 2010): $75 (unsigned), $100 - $200 (signed); U.S. edition (Alfred a Knopf Inc, Maryland, U.S.A., 2010): cover price (unsigned), $185 (signed)
- Emma Donoghue, Room (Pan MacMillan – Picador) - U.K. edition is true first: $50 - $68 (unsigned), $75 - $280 (signed); U.S. edition: cover price (unsigned), $45 (signed).
- Helen Dunmore, The Betrayal (Penguin – Fig Tree) - U.K. firsts: cover price (unsigned), $50 - $150 (signed)
- Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Books) - U.K. firsts: $75 (unsigned), $200 (signed); not released yet in the U.S.
- Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury) - U.K. firsts: $70 - $100 (signed); not released yet in U.S.
- Andrea Levy, The Long Song (Headline Publishing Group – Headline Review) - U.K. firsts: $50 - $75 (unsigned), $150 (signed)
- Tom McCarthy, C (Random House – Jonathan Cape) - U.K. firsts: $50 - $90 (signed); U.S. firsts: cover price (unsigned), $45 (signed)
- David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Hodder & Stoughton – Sceptre) - Sceptre Limited edition (Sceptre, London, 2010): $200 - $500+ (signed); First Canadian edition (Knopf Canada, Toronto, 2010): $280 (signed); First U.S. edition (Random House, New York, New York, 2010): $50 (unsigned), $100 - $150 (signed)
- Lisa Moore, February (Random House – Chatto & Windus)
- Paul Murray, Skippy Dies (Penguin – Hamish Hamilton) - U.K. firsts $100- $200+ (signed); U.S. firsts $45 (unsigned)
- Rose Tremain, Trespass (Random House – Chatto & Windus) - U.K. first: $30 (unsigned), $130 (signed)
- Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap (Grove Atlantic – Tuskar Rock) - U.K. first: $80 (unsigned), $130 (signed)
- Alan Warner, The Stars in the Bright Sky (Random House – Jonathan Cape) - U.K. firsts: cover price (unsigned), $70 (signed)
Labels: C, collectible, Damon Galgut, Emma Donoghue, Finkler Question, In a Strange Room, Man-Booker Prize, Paul Murray, Peter Carey, Room, shortlist, The Slap, Tsoikas
