The book trade gears up for Superdoopah Thursday

In the book trade they call it Super Thursday. It’s usually the first Thursday in October when more books are published than on any other day of the year.

But this year the trade is gearing up for another special Super Thursday, let’s call it a Superdoopah Thursday, on September 3 because there is such a backlog of books to be published which have been postponed due to lockdown.

And it’s a tsunami of books: 590 books are to be published on this Superdoopah Thursday, nearly a third more than the equivalent day last year.

Then another 712 titles due to hit the shelves on October 1 for the traditional Super Thursday. According to the Bookseller, bible of the book trade, more than 210 titles have had their publication date moved to September because publication was delayed because of the spring lockdown.

The total includes all academic and professional books as well as fiction hard backs. On the Superdoopah Thursday, there are 389 trade hardbacks alone waiting to be published.

Tom Tivnan, managing editor of the Bookseller, says this year is another great year for books following on from what was a stupendous 2019, the biggest year ever for British publishing. “The smaller retailers and independent book shops are worried they won’t have enough shelf space to cope with the number of new books. But it’s great for business.” It’s also good for the authors, because many of them do not get paid in full until the books are out in the shops or online.

Super Thursday is always critical in the book trade’s calendar because it’s when publishers prepare to get their authors to the number one slots ready for the Christmas season. This year will be even more critical as there is so much competition to make it onto the best-selling lists. Already earmarked as favourites to make Christmas stocks are Ant and Dec’s Once Upon a Tyne, Richard Osman’s move into crime with The Thursday Murder Club and Oi Aadvark!, the latest in Kes Gray and Jim Field’s Oi series.

Other seasonal hopefuls include Yotam Ottolenghi’s Ottolenghi FLAVOUR, Caitlin Moran’s More Than a Woman, Will Young’s “manifesto/memoir” To Be a Gay Man and what is being described by the Bookseller as a ‘quirky Christmas hit’, Monsters of River and Rock, a fishing memoir from Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith.

The Iron Maiden guitarist is one of many celebrities – or that person from the telly – with “memoir-plus” style books coming out. In that oeuvre there is Alan Davies with Just Ignore Him, podcaster cum-comedian Adam Buxton’s Ramble Book and Vinnie Jones’ grief memoir, Lost Without You.

Gavin & Stacey creator, Ruth Jones – who made a cool £1.1m from her debut novel Never Greener – has a new novel out, Us Three, while BBC presenter Jeremy Vine’s first novel, The Diver and the Lover, set in 1950s Spain featuring Salvador Dali, love and intrigue is also out.

As ever, the British obsession with cook books and football remains unquenched: Nadiya Husain is bringing out Nadiya Bakes while readers cannot get enough of Liverpool’s hero manager, Jurgen Klopp, who has several books about him being published.

Lockdown may have delayed publication of so many books but it has not stopped people wanting to read. Quite the reverse. Fiction book sales surged by a third over the lockdown period while sales of educational books rose by more than 200%.

What is interesting though, is the genre of books that people have been seeking during their enforced stays at home.

Counter-intuitively, many readers sought out books about previous pandemics. The great Albert Camus classic, The Plague, which tells the story of la peste taking grip of the Algerian city of Oran written in 1947, was an instant Covid hit.

Publishers have been surprised at the appetite for previous year’s best-sellers such as Michelle Obama’s biography, Becoming and Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Sapiens, which have flown off the online shelves. In the trade, it’s been called the “Lockdown front-list.”

As one publisher remarked: “People have finally had the time to read all those books they always said they wanted to read.”

Wellbeing, self-help and personal development books have also seen a boom in sales.

With perfect timing, a new book published in May by journalist James Nestor called Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, became an overnight New York Times sensation. It’s a fascinating read in which Nestor tracks down men and women who practice ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo. Just what is needed for such exceptional times.

Escapism and feel good novels have also been in great demand.  A new novel by Joyo Moyes, The Giver of Stars, has soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 25,331 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM in its first week on sale. Moyes has unseated David Walliams and Tony Ross’ The World’s Worst Parents after four weeks at the top. Normal People by Sally Rooney has been another favourite.

But Covid has also delayed some books so that they can be  adapted to the pandemic.  How to Work Without Losing Your Mind by Cate Sevilla was due to be published by Penguin this autumn but is now postponed until January to include the experience of lockdown on work.

More pertinently, another Penguin title, Why Losing Your Job Could Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to You by Eleanor Twedell, is due to be published in November. With a jobs bloodbath on the cards, Twedell’s advice will be much in demand.