For the month of January, US print book sales were down by 6 percent compared to the same period in 2023, driven by a decline in adult nonfiction, according to Circana BookScan. (This year doesn’t have Prince Harry’s bestselling memoir to boost sales.) Adult and YA fiction continue to perform well, with fantasy leading both markets. In fact, fantasy fiction makes up half of the top 10 bestselling titles. Unsurprisingly, the top bestselling title of January 2024 is House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury), which moved 361,000 print copies in hardcover.
In the UK, Nielsen BookScan reports that sales in the fantasy/sci-fi genre have increased by 54 percent over the last five years.
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.
