According to Circana BookScan, print sales for new releases (frontlist) have reached a “new benchmark” of 30 percent of overall book sales. Frontlist sales have been sitting at that 30 percent mark for two months now. Compare that to 2010, when frontlist sales were sitting at 54 percent of all print book sales.
That said, some new voices are emerging at the top of the BookScan’s list, including Rebecca Yarros with Fourth Wing, the number-one bestseller of July. B. Dylan Hollis is number five overall during July for Baking Yesteryear; he has a significant following on TikTok and YouTube, where he tests vintage recipes. BookScan analyst Kristen McLean says, “While we are seeing the overall #BookTok numbers start to lose a little velocity, there are plenty of new voices emerging from the platform.”
As of the end of July 2023, print book sales are down in the US by 3.6 percent versus 2022. (Sales still compare favorably to pre-pandemic 2019.) Juvenile nonfiction has experienced the steepest decline, about 10 percent, although some of this decline relates to outperformance in the category during the pandemic. Adult fiction is showing 2.3 percent growth versus last year.
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.
