In April 2024, print book sales declined by 4 percent versus 2023, according to Circana BookScan. However, sales of adult fiction and YA are outperforming last year; adult fiction saw its third consecutive month of growth as nonfiction declined. Romance and fantasy comprised seven of the top 10 adult bestsellers in April; the only nonfiction book to make the list was The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.
Year to date, book sales are down by 2 percent from 2023. That’s still 15 percent better than 2019.
Meanwhile, according to the Association of American Publishers, overall book sales in the first quarter rose just slightly (0.2 percent) compared to last year. However, trade (consumer) sales fell 2.8 percent. That means other sectors, like religious publishing and higher education, drove the slight 0.2 percent increase. Just like Circana, AAP shows adult fiction driving growth: sales increased across all formats by 3.6 percent, while adult nonfiction fell 5.8 percent.
The AAP shows the one growth format was, unsurprisingly, digital audio, with sales up by about 15 percent in the first quarter. In nonfiction, digital audio comprises 15.5 percent of sales, while ebooks comprise 9.5 percent of 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.
