According to the Association of American Publishers, overall consumer book sales declined 6.6 percent in 2022. This stat is very close to Circana BookScan results (a 5 percent decline for print sales) for 2022. The only major category to see sales growth was adult fiction, up 1.3 percent; in fact, adult fiction outsold adult nonfiction in 2022. That’s a first, noted Michael Cader in Publishers Lunch (sub required).
Cader also observed there’s been a “clear resurgence” of physical retail sales, which jumped to their highest level in years. Online retail, meanwhile, fell 12.5 percent, “likely reflecting the sales and inventory adjustments at Amazon.”
Over the last five years, hardcover revenue increased 4.1 percent; paperback revenue increased 15.6 percent; mass market declined by 37.7 percent; ebook revenue declined 2.5 percent; and digital audio revenue increased by 71.7 percent.
| Adult fiction | Adult nonfiction | Children’s/ YA fiction | Children’s nonfiction | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 23.3% | 40.9% | 38% | 30.6% |
| Paperback | 36.9% | 33.9% | 40.8% | 53.8% |
| Digital audio | 13.7% | 10.8% | 3.4% | 0.3% |
| Ebook | 20% | 8.9% | 4.5% | 1.4% |
| Mass market | 5.6% | – | – | – |
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.
