NPD BookScan reported its year-end numbers: 2022 came in 5.8 percent below 2021 in terms of print unit sales, and the children’s market made up half of that decline. However, 2022 still remains the second-highest year for print sales since BookScan began tracking.
Analyst Kristen McLean writes, “A good deal of the buying and reading behavior that started in the pandemic is still with us, although not every area of the business is benefiting equally. Big questions remain about book consumers’ appetites as we look ahead to 2023.” Also, note that backlist comprised 70 percent of all print book sales in 2022; about three-quarters of BookScan’s top 200 books of the year were published before 2022.
In December, top sellers were The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama, three titles from Colleen Hoover, and new series installments from children’s authors Jeff Kinney and Dav Pilkey. A KDP-published, print-on-demand title—Interesting Facts for Curious Minds by Jordan Moore—also hit the top 10. In the UK, it held the number-one spot in the paperback nonfiction charts for three weeks. In the US, the book has sold more than 125,000 print copies. The book was first published in July 2022 by Red Panda Press, of which not much is known except that the founder is based in Dubai.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
