James Patterson reigns supreme in UK libraries

The American thriller writer James Patterson was the most borrowed author in UK libraries last year, according to data released today by Public Lending Right. Patterson has held first place since 2007, with books such as the 11th Hour, Guilty Wives and I, Michael Bennett securing the position for him over the last year. James Patterson (along with co-authors like Maxine Paetro) had 15 titles in the top 100, and his books were lent out over one million times.

Behind Patterson, children’s authors Daisy Meadows, Julia Donaldson, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson rounded off the top five with romance writer Nora Roberts in sixth and cosy crime writer MC Beaton in seventh.

Just like last year, crime novels dominated the adult fiction chart. David Baldacci, Lee Child, Clive Cussler, Harlan Coben and Michael Connelly all hit the top 10 with James Patterson top. It’s surprising more female crime authors didn’t rank higher, and Scandinavian crime fiction doesn’t seem to be such a hit in the libraries… yet.

The most borrowed book for 2012-2013 was Lee Child’s The Affair – the 2011 Jack Reacher novel which was 16th in the series. Child also wrote the second most borrowed book last year which was A Wanted Man, another Reacher novel which we reviewed here. EL James came in third with 50 Shades of Grey which inspired our CFL sex survey.

PLR keeps track of borrowing figures and ensures that authors received 6.2p each time their book was borrowed, up to a maximum of £6,600. Over 22,000 authors received a payment from the government-funded body. In total £6.1 million has been paid out to authors. Here are the charts…

Top 10 Most Borrowed Authors 2012-13 (last year)
1 James Patterson (1)
2 Daisy Meadows (2)
3 Julia Donaldson (3)
4 Francesca Simon (5)
5 Jacqueline Wilson (6)
6 Nora Roberts (4)
7 MC Beaton (7)
8 Adam Blade (10)
9 Mick Inkpen (9)
10 David Baldacci (18)

Top 10 Most Borrowed Adult Authors 2012-13
1 James Patterson
2 Nora Roberts
3 MC Beaton
4 David Baldacci
5 Danielle Steel
6 Lee Child
7 Anna Jacobs
8 Clive Cussler
9 Harlan Coben
10 Michael Connelly

Top 10 Most BorrowedTitles 2012-13
1 The Affair by Lee Child
2 A Wanted Man by Lee Child
3 Fifty Shades of by Grey EL James
4 11th Hour by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney
6 Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
7 Guilty Wives by James Patterson
8 Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
9 I, Michael Bennett by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
10 The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

Read our story on last year’s figures here.