The latest figures from NPD Books show that US book sales remain in a solid position, with little change over the last five weeks. Year to date, print book sales remain 6 percent lower against 2021’s blockbuster year. Remember, this still represents increased sales when compared to pre-pandemic sales levels. 2022 print sales are up 16 percent versus 2019.
Newly released titles performing well include Book Lovers by Emily Henry (trade paperback romance from Penguin), Killing the Killers by Bill O’Reilly (hardcover nonfiction/history from Macmillan), and 22 Seconds by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (hardcover thriller from Hachette).
Other recent data points of interest:
- Traditional publishers report strong performance during the first two months of 2022. According to the Association of American Publishers, adult trade sales increased 3.6 percent for the first two months of the year (versus 2021), and children’s/YA sales increased by 17.9 percent. Sales for all publishers that reported results to the AAP were up 3.3 percent versus last year. Michael Cader of Publishers Lunch comments, “Returns, which have fallen appreciably during the pandemic, still continue to moderate, which helps publishers’ net. … It’s also possible that price increases or a shift in format mix is sustaining revenues even if consumer unit sales are slipping.”
- Translated fiction sales surge in the UK due to manga. In the UK, according to the latest figures from Nielsen, translated fiction represented 11.4 percent of total fiction revenue last year, primarily owing to the popularity of manga, which is almost entirely translated literature (primarily from Japanese). This is believed to represent a doubling of translation sales since 2018. Conventional wisdom has held that only 3 percent of US and UK book sales consist of translated literature, but manga sales may have shattered that presumption. Learn more from The Bookseller (subscription required).
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.
