Through the end of August 2020, NPD BookScan reports that total print unit sales are up by 5.6 percent over last year in the US. In August 2020 alone, print sales were up by 13 percent versus August 2019, driven primarily by adult nonfiction and juvenile nonfiction. Meanwhile, the Association of American Publishers just issued their monthly sales snapshot for July (an estimate, not final), which showed a deep sales decline for K-12 instructional materials and higher ed. Year to date, AAP publishers report an overall decline of 5.8 percent versus 2019, but if you filter down to specific categories that exclude the educational markets, the picture is much brighter. Sales of adult books are up by 4.6 percent over a year ago, and children’s/YA titles are up by 7.5 percent.
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.
