Bad Christmas sales for comedians' books, but DVDs selling well
Memoirs written by comedians are not selling well this Christmas, according to retailers.
In a year which has been bad for celebrity memoirs in general, books written by comedians are reportedly not selling nearly as many copies as publishers hoped.
Peter Kay's latest book, Saturday Night Peter, has been singled out as one of the worst performing. One retailer told The Bookseller magazine: "It is laughable in terms of size [the £20 hardback has 272 pages]. It has massively underperformed." Another told the magazine: "There was very little publicity and it is extremely thin."
Amongst the comedians and entertainers selling new books this year are Jack Dee (Thanks for Nothing), Dara O'Briain (Tickling the English) and Justin Lee Collins (Good Times!)
However, Frankie Boyle's new book, My Shit Life So Far, is bucking the trend and selling well. Steph Bateson, Asda's books buying manager, said: "People love him or hate him, but he was published into a niche where his fans were sure to buy the book."
Whilst the book market may be struggling, the DVD market is as healthy as ever, with comedy shows and stand-up comics dominating the DVD charts in the run up to Christmas. Michael McIntyre's Hello Wembley has shot to the top of Amazon's sales charts, and the DVDs from Gavin & Stacey, The Inbetweeners, Rhod Gilbert, Frankie Boyle, Russell Howard, Eddie Izzard, Rob Brydon, Al Murray, Harry Hill's TV Burp, Bill Bailey, Mock the Week, Jimmy Carr and Jason Manford are also selling very well. Following its multiple-wins at the British Comedy Awards at the weekend, Outnumbered has also started to sell very strongly, and the double-boxset of the show is likely to soon enter the top 20 best-sellers list this week.