Kate Middleton Is Good for Business: Hilary Mantel's Book Sales Soar After Calling Duchess "Machine-Made"

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by Alyssa Toomey | Fri., Feb. 22, 2013 12:30 PM

Samir Hussein/WireImage

Turns out, talking smack about Kate Middleton is good for business.

After Hilary Mantel raised eyebrows when she called the Duchess of Cambridge "machine-made" and "gloss-varnished" in her controversial lecture last week, the author's book sales have since skyrocketed, shooting to the top of the Amazon Bestseller Chart.

Talk about a benefit of bad publicity.

All the details on Mantel's much-buzzed-about speech

Mantel's 2010 novel Wolf Hall, for which she won the Man Booker Prize, is currently sitting pretty in the No. 11 slot with its sequel Bringing Up the Bodies not far behind at No. 28.

According to published reports, Wolf Hall rose from 15th to 7th place earlier this week, with a 200 percent increase in sales in less than 24 hours.

Mantel made headlines for her lengthy "Royal Bodies" lecture at the London Book Review, where her words and critique of the monarchy were slightly misconstrued by tabloids. Her apparent criticism of Kate Middleton even caught the attention of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who later defended the duchess.

Who cares if Kate is "gloss-varished"? She always looks great