Strong online sales are fuelling speculation that the bookies' favourite for The Man Booker Prize for Fiction On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan could be beaten by an outsider.

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones is the best performer amongst only a handful of books that have seen their sales increase since the longlist was published.

According to the online retailer Amazon.co.uk, Mister Pip has sold the most copies week-on-week after the initial surge after the announcement was made on August 6.

The only other books from the longlist that have seen their sales increase were Self Help by Edward Docx, aged 33 who is the youngest author to be nominated for the £50,000 prize, and Animal's People by Indra Singha.

Great expectations for the writer from nowhere

Andrew Holgate talks to Lloyd Jones the surprise favourite who could pip Ian McEwan to the prestigious prize

BACKGROUND

• The tide that runs through the Booker

• Unknown has great Booker expectations

• No certainties as judges pick interesting list

• McEwan could be pipped to Booker

• 13 novels make Booker’s dozen

BACKGROUND

• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

• The Gathering by Anne Enright

• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

• Darkmans by Nicola Barker

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• News and reviews on our special Man Booker page

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• Man Booker Prize: the longlist

The other ten titles in the longlist have been unable to maintain the strong sales they had, with Consolation by Michael Redhill suffering the worst drop, Amazon.co.uk said.

Kes Nielsen, Head of Books Buying at Amazon.co.uk, said: "Mister Pip could well be a dark horse for the shortlist and for the prize.

"With the Booker, or any other award, sales go through the roof once the announcement is made but it is a real achievement to not only maintain those sales over the following weeks but further grow them in the manner that a book like Mister Pip has."

Immediately after the longlist was announced bookmakers William Hill placed McEwan as the 3-1 most likely winner. McEwan previously won the prize in 1998 for his book Amsterdam.

Overall, On Chesil Beach has sold the most copies, according to Amazon, followed by The Gift of Rain by first-time author Tan Twan Eng.

The judges this year are the poet Wendy Cope; Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland, which became a Bafta-winning film; the biographer and critic Ruth Scurr; the actress Imogen Stubbs and the Chair of the Judges, Howard Davies.

The shortlist will be announced on Thursday.

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