The Versatile Master Artist

The best-selling books he had seen that matched these two sets of data usually stayed on the Moonlight News’ weekly book sales list for at least 10 weeks.

Some were even more impressive, directly topping the list every week.

If the number of shipments and paid conversion rate were already impressive, the store manager was truly clueless on how to evaluate the shipment ratio of the collector’s edition.

The collector’s box set, all 60 sets sold out!

Each set sells for 100 pounds!

London’s average wage income leads the Three British Isles by a large margin, with 100 pounds representing a significant portion of a day’s labor reward for most people.

In the suburbs, many would need two days without eating or drinking just to earn 100 pounds.

This is a gift for hardcore readers who aren’t short of money, usually selling only a few sets a week, but now it’s like they’re free.

”Today’s sales turnover is almost fifty thousand pounds, even the hardcovers are selling this fast. Have you ever heard of something like this before?” the manager asked in shock.

”No.” The staff member shook his head.

The collector’s box set’s base is ultimately too small, and the atmosphere at the signing event is hot, with shoppers on Oxford Street being relatively generous.

There’s a possibility that some passionate individuals impulsively bought a set each, exhausting the sixty sets in no time.

But the fact that the hardcover sold out before the paperback just leaves the manager completely baffled as to what kind of miraculous path this book is on.

At Waterstones, the average sales ratio for the same book between hardcover and paperback is about 1:4.

Occasionally, newly released popular books can reach 1:3.

Most customers buying books in physical stores are book lovers.

The proportion of hardcover sales at physical bookstores is actually notably higher than the amount sold through Amazon’s online store.

Today, the more expensive hardcover has nearly reached 1:1 with the paperback in terms of sales, selling even ten-plus more copies than the paperback.

Absurd,

It’s utterly absurd!

This phenomenon has never occurred before for books where the hardcover and paperback price difference exceeds 10 pounds.

It’s not a question of being impressive, rather, these figures completely defy the basic rules of the book industry.

Has the world gone mad!

Has everyone changed their minds and decided books must be bought and taken home for collection?

The manager couldn’t make sense of the figures, but his heartbeat quickened, resembling the beat of a drum.

Suddenly, he opened the drawer and took out a Monday issue of THE MOON.

Directly turning to the ninth page on the cultural section.

Every Monday, the editorial staff of Moonlight News updates the book sales data across the UK on this page.

All publishers closely track this list at all times.

Currently ranked first is Prince Harry’s autobiography, Back-up, with last week’s sales at 72,321 copies, topping the book sales chart for 20 weeks consecutively, each week achieving over 50,000 copies sold.

Regardless of Moonlight News’ book sales ranking or the New York Times bestseller chart across the ocean, it leads the second place by tens of thousands of copies, a steep lead.

Back-up has already become the best-selling non-fiction book in human history.

And it has the potential to become the second best-selling work in the publishing industry since Harry Potter concluded, in the post-millennium era.

Numerous book reviewers have predicted that in this year’s book domain it will have no rivals, and the annual total sales might lead the second place by more than a million copies.

Second place is the romance novel Truth by TikTok celebrity writer Hoover, which also holds a long-standing position on the bestseller list, with a weekly sale of 39,721 copies. Third place is a much-anticipated industry novel newcomer whose work, School Finale, just released last Monday, sold 36,521 copies.

The manager’s gaze halted at the top 10 of the list.

Normally, entering the weekly bestseller top ten requires sales figures around five digits.

In months lacking new major releases, perhaps seven to eight thousand copies might suffice.

This week’s tenth place is an old book, a history palace intrigue novel Trial Hall that has resurged following the BBC broadcast of a Tudor Dynasty historical documentary.

Last week’s sales were 10,098 copies, just barely making it as the last novel on the list with over ten thousand weekly sales.

And just in this bookstore, within three or four hours, 1,400 sets of the new Little Prince were sold, even when excluding the added Oxford Street traffic factor.

If all those bits and pieces are tallied up, today’s first-day sales could break ten thousand sets.

What about for the week?

The manager stared at the sales figures of the top three.

He suddenly had a premonition that perhaps he might have sold an extraordinary book today.

Maybe, just maybe... the position that Back-up has held, topping the bestseller lists of major publications for hundreds of consecutive days, might be about to shift.

”The Little Prince and Prince Harry’s autobiography, what is this? A battle of princes?”

The manager muttered to himself.

Prince Harry’s autobiography hasn’t held a new book launch event at Waterstones, so in his heart, the manager hopes more for The Little Prince to win.

He felt an overwhelmingly strong sense of anticipation.

The manager pushed open the window, poked his head out, looking at the reporters still guarding the entrance outside.

Many of these reporters were hired by Scholastic Group themselves.

Additionally, some book reporters in London heard through various industry connections about the bustling Oxford Street signing event for The Little Prince and voluntarily came over for the news.

The entrance now resembled a star preparing to walk the red carpet, gathering reporters from over a dozen media outlets, even the British Broadcasting Corporation interview vehicle arrived.

”No, don’t bother restocking from the warehouse, the signing event time is limited in extending. It’s already this late, even if books are fetched from another area, not many would be sold, adding one or two hundred more books doesn’t matter.”