Bestseller Stat Shot: Prize Bumps
It’s pretty much expected that after an author wins a big prize, his or her sales will be given a commensurate boost. Granted, this doesn’t always happen, but it certainly did last week for Alice Munro after she was named winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. That news was soon followed by another big book prize—the Man Booker, which went to 28-year-old New Zealander Eleanor Catton for The Luminaries. Catton had the good luck to have her book publish the week of the Booker announcement, so we’ll never know the before-after story there. But here are some recent Nobel, Booker, and National Book Award winners, along with sales for each title the week before and after its respective prize.
| Dear Life | Alice Munro | Nobel, 2013 | 989 | 6,330 |
| The Round House | Louise Erdrich | NBA (fic), 2012 | 2,022 | 4,915 |
| Behind the Beautiful Flowers | Katherine Boo | NBA (nonfic), 2012 | 377 | 1,207 |
| Bring Up the Bodies | Hilary Mantel | Booker, 2012 | 493 | 2,141 |
| Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out | Mo Yan | Nobel, 2012 | 2 | 127 |
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