Food blogger Woodward sets record

The Bookseller Healthy eating advocate and blogger Ella Woodward has claimed the number one spot on the Official UK Top 50 this week. Deliciously Ella (Yellow Kite) sold 32,144 copies in the week ending the 31st January and is the highest first week sales figure for a debut food and drink writer since Nielsen BookScan records began in 1998. This compares with 1,295 copies for Nigella Lawson's How to Eat (Chatto) and 708 copies for Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef (Michael Joseph) published in 1998 and 1999 respectively. The cookbook, which features over 100 gluten, dairy and sugar free recipes is the first to top the chart since Mary Berry Cooks (BBC) last March and Woodward is the first Food & Drink writer to claim top spot with their debut in the BookScan era.  Woodward's success demonstrates once again how online popularity can lead to print publishing success. With 293,000 followers on Instagram and over 33,500 on Twitter, Woodward has an enormous built-in audience few first-time writers could boast.