Bad publicity affects sales of Ross’s and Brand’s memoirs

Sales of Jonathan Ross's appropriately named memoir Why Do I Say These Things? almost halved in the week after the so called "Sachsgate" affair. Both Brand and Ross published new books on October 16. Figures released by Nielsen BookScan showed that Ross's book sales fell from 10,535 copies in the week before the radio programme to 5,791 copies the week afterwards, a 45% decrease. Brand also saw a drop in sales, with his new book Articles of Faith, a collection of his Guardian columns about football, dropping from 1,852 copies passing through the tills in the week before the scandal to 1,684 the week after. Ross has since been suspended for the now infamous prank, while Brand has resigned. Philip Stone, charts editor at the Bookseller, said that notoriety had been similarly unhelpful for other celebrity authors in recent years. Sales of John Major's memoir, he said, actually dropped after news of his affair with Edwina Currie broke in September 2002, while Jade Goody also saw sales of her autobiography fall in the week of the Big Brother racism row. "With so many celebrity memoirs out in the market this Christmas and the choices open to the public so wide and varied one can't help but feel that customers who were previously thinking 'Ross' may be persuaded to shop elsewhere. Alan Carr, Paul O'Grady, Michael Parkinson, Dawn French in particular, perhaps," added Stone.