Sales of Neil Gaiman's books in Russian Federation fall amid new wave of harassment allegations

Sales of books by British science fiction writer and screenwriter Neil Gaiman have fallen in Russia after the author's accusations of sexual abuse. The drop compared to last January amounted to 10%, Izvestia was informed in the largest federal chain of stores "Chitay-gorod".

In the press office of "Chitay-gorod" "Izvestia" confirmed that Gaiman continues to enjoy interest among Russian readers. The most popular book in "Chitay-gorod" is the children's story "Coraline", written in 2002 and published in Russian in 2005.

"This work in the last three years is among the top sales on the network in the segment of children's literature. At the end of 2024, the book took 25th place in the overall top-100 and third place in the children's rating", - reported in "Chitai-Gorod".

At the same time, at the end of January 2025, "Chitai-Gorod" recorded a decline in sales of Gaiman's books by 10% compared to the same period in 2024. This happened against the background of a loud scandal.

Back in the summer of 2024, Gaiman was accused of harassment and violence by several women at once. In Tortoise's podcast "The Master: Allegations Against Neil Gaiman," they claimed he forced them into "traumatic and humiliating sex" without consent. Gaiman's representatives allegedly forced the victims to sign non-disclosure documents.

The writer himself denied the abuse allegations at the time. According to his representatives, everything was "extremely respectful and consensual."

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

Good omens: sales of Gaiman's books in Russia fell amid the scandal