Penguin Random House authors honoured at inaugural Specsavers Bestseller Awards

The new Specsavers Bestseller Awards to honour high-selling authors took place at Mayfair’s No 4 Hamilton Place on Wednesday 25 January, hosted by the BBC’s Kate Silverton. Three Penguin Random House authors received Platinum Bestseller Awards for over a million copies sold: Paula Hawkins for The Girl on the Train, S J Watson for Before I Go to Sleep, and Jojo Moyes for Me Before You. In addition, an honorary Platinum Award was presented to Dame Jacqueline Wilson, for over 18m collective sales for books, including the Hetty Feather and Tracy Beaker series.

The event also saw books which sold over 500,000 copies awarded the Gold Bestseller Awards and those which have sold over 250,000 units receive Silver Bestseller Awards.

Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris received Gold and Silver Bestseller Awards for their satirical titles including How It Works: The Husband and The Ladybird Guide to the Hangover, inspired by the Ladybird books for Children.

In non-fiction, other authors to win Gold and Silver Awards included Caitlin Moran and Owen Jones. Honoured for their fiction sales were Kate Atkinson and Dinah Jeffries, and in Children’s vlogger-turned-author Zoe Sugg picked up Bestseller Awards.

Andre Breedt, managing director of Nielsen Book Research International, said: “To sell a million copies of one title is an impressive and relatively rare achievement. The fact that so many authors have achieved this level of sales in such a short time, and in some cases several times over, is quite phenomenal. Our ‘Class of 2016’ books, in Platinum, Gold and Silver, offer a clear view of British readers’ current interests and obsessions, from what makes our children laugh to how we as adults make sense of what is going on around us.”

Nielsen revealed its Bestseller Hall of Fame last week, comprising 97 titles by 64 authors – featuring publications that have sold more than one million copies between 1998 and the end of 2015. 

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