- According to the Association of American Publishers, consumer book sales across all formats in 2025 were slightly down (0.9 percent) versus 2024. If you look at sales across all types of publishers, not just consumer, the industry was up 1.1 percent. Adult fiction sales were flat (keep in mind that Sourcebooks and Entangled sales aren’t in the AAP reporting mix); nonfiction sales declined 2.5 percent. Children’s and YA sales were up 1 percent overall. Religious presses grew nearly 3 percent. Learn more.
- For the second quarter, sales at HarperCollins are up 6 percent, helped partly by strong print book sales, particularly in frontlist and Christian titles. The publisher is benefiting from the breakout success of Rachel Reid’s hockey romance series, Heated Rivalry (Game Changers), along with a Bridgerton boost with the release of season four on Netflix. The company is also looking forward to the payout of the Anthropic copyright infringement settlement. Learn more.
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.
