As of the week ending March 2, print book sales are down 4 percent versus last year, according to Circana BookScan. Aside from the latest title by Sarah J. Maas, the top bestsellers in February 2024 include The Women by Kristin Hannah (Macmillan), If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin (Sourcebooks), Bride by Ali Hazelwood (Penguin Random House), and The Teacher by Freida McFadden (Sourcebooks). Women, romance, and fantasy are dominating.
Earlier this month, BookScan analyst Kristen McLean offered a webinar focused on book sales in 2024. She predicts romantasy will continue its stellar sales; nonfiction categories poised to do well include mental and emotional health, exercise, and women’s health. The worst news is for children’s authors; sales in the 9–12 age range (middle-grade) showed the most significant decline last year; McLean says there are reports that children in this age range are reading less.
TikTok-specific update: If you omit Colleen Hoover’s books in 2023, sales of BookTok titles were up by 40 percent; the platform’s effects on book sales are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Learn more in Publishers Weekly.
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.
