For 2022, Penguin Random House saw sales increase nearly 5 percent, driven in part by favorable exchange rates. But organic sales fell 3.3 percent as book markets normalized from pandemic highs. Profits fell even more, nearly 12 percent, partly due to inflation and supply chain issues.
Meanwhile, another Big Five publisher, Hachette, reported a sales decline of 2.2 percent in 2022. Taking the blame: Little, Brown (fewer “flagship titles”); Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Perseus; and FaithWords, its religious segment.
According to Circana BookScan, here’s a look at book sales during the first quarter of 2023:
- Sales remain comparable to 2022, beating analysts’ expectations.
- Gains in adult fiction and YA fiction drove performance, with romance in the lead, partly due to Colleen Hoover.
- Declining categories are those that saw gains during the pandemic: cooking/entertainment and home/gardening.
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.
