Bestseller Stat Shot
If you’re looking at percentages, then French novelist Patrick Modiano saw a big sales spike last week, after it was announced that he won this year’s Nobel in literature. Sales of his novel Missing Person shot up over 1,000%. His children’s book, Catherine Certitude, sold more copies last week than it sold in all of 2013. Same goes for Honeymoon, another novel. But Modiano’s unit sales are slightly less impressive: all in, 150 print copies of his books sold last week at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. With most titles out of stock, and not shipping for weeks or months, it might be a while until Modiano and his American publisher, Godine, reap the benefits of the prize. But if history is any indication, they can look forward to a nice boost once copies find their way into stores. Here’s a look back at how previous Nobel Laureates have done the year before and the year after taking the prize.
| Author | Award Year | Unit Sales Before | Unit Sales After |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Tranströmer | 2011 | 506 | 16,480 |
| Mo Yan | 2012 | 274 | 19,571 |
| Alice Munro | 2013 | 60,507 | 211,540 |
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