According to NPD BookScan, backlist has continued to drive print sales this year, as it did in 2020, comprising over two-thirds of all unit sales. While print sales are up 11 percent through the end of November, ebook sales are down 18 percent versus 2020.
Recent top sellers include:
- In adult nonfiction, Amanda Gorman’s Call Us What We Carry: Poems sold almost 175,000 copies in its first week on sale. Others include Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown and The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
- Among adult fiction bestsellers: The Judge’s List by John Grisham and Chainsaw Man, Volume 8 by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Diana Gabaldon’s Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, and Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here.
- In YA fiction, backlist titles dominate, including Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson.
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.
