Announcing the 2024 Bestseller Awards
By Georgia Appleyard and Amy Joan Sayner
Nielsen BookData, in partnership with BolognaBookPlus, have announced that the highly anticipated Bestseller Awards will return on 22 January 2024 with a ceremony held at Ham Yard Hotel, London. The Bestseller Awards are a unique and celebrated accolade, as they are the only awards in the industry whose winners are determined based on consumer sales across both print and digital.
The Bestseller Awards feature three distinct categories: Silver status is conferred upon books that manage to sell over 250,000 copies, Gold status is granted to books that surpass the 500,000 mark, and those titles that exceed the 1,000,000 copies milestone are awarded Platinum status. Achieving this level of sales is undoubtedly a remarkable achievement, with past award recipients including household names such as Richard Osman, Louise Candlish, and David Walliams.
Sales data is provided by Nielsen BookScan, which has been tracking book sales in the UK for thirty years. BolognaBookPlus, an advocate for authors, rights, and creativity, has partnered with Nielsen BookData to bring the Bestseller Awards back into the spotlight in 2024.
This year's Bestseller Awards are particularly special as they mark the return to in-person ceremonies after three long years. The previous two events were held virtually or as individual presentations, making BolognaBookPlus and Nielsen BookData especially enthusiastic about ushering in the new year with a grander celebration.
The announcement of the 2024 Awards Ceremony was made during a joint reception at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. Andre Breedt, the Managing Director of Nielsen BookData, said, "We’re delighted to once again be hosting an in-person ceremony for the Bestseller Awards with our partners BolognaBookPlus. It will be an absolute pleasure to welcome the industry to the Ham Yard Hotel to celebrate and honour UK bestselling authors."
Jacks Thomas, Director of BolognaBookPlus, commented that, "As BolognaBookPlus enables the showcasing, discovery, and international rights trading of books across all categories and genres, it seems fitting to partner on these awards that recognize those authors whose audiences and sales are the judge and jury, and which represent the results of the work done by so many industry professionals, to get books into print and sold at book fairs and, ultimately, book stores."