A New York Post article reports that Barnes & Noble is “cashing in” on the book-buying craze sparked by the pandemic: the chain is enjoying significant sales growth this year compared to 2019. In particular, sales of manga and graphic novels are up by as much as 500 percent due to young adults shopping on Friday and Saturday nights.
That sounds great, right? Well, it depends on your frame of reference. The entire industry is enjoying double-digit sales growth, and US print book sales are up 20 percent this year compared to 2019. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble total sales are up by 6 percent versus 2019; those sales include not just books, but also movies, music, newsstand, café sales, and other merchandise. (Books represent around 55 percent of the chain’s total sales.) In 2020, the chain’s sales declined by around 20 percent, according to interviews with Daunt, and current growth is coming from sales in store, not online. That’s a red flag, considering how much book sales have moved online since early 2020. The Post article notes that B&N’s current owner, which acquired it in 2019, is looking to sell it off in another couple years.
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.
