According to the AAP, which consists of traditional publishers in various sectors, consumer sales dropped 6.2 percent in 2022 against 2021. (This is just a tiny bit higher than the figure reported by NPD BookScan, which tracks sales through the register.) Despite the sales decline, the year still represents a gain over 2020 and is the second-best year on record for trade publishers. Sales of adult hardcovers declined the most, falling by 16 percent. Audiobook sales were up 7 percent. Learn more. Meanwhile, in the UK, ebook sales for the biggest publishers reached their lowest levels in five years in 2022, declining by 8 percent. (There’s a similar ebook decline in the US: 6.6 percent.) Why? Some suspect that BookTok is of greater benefit to print sales.
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.
