According to year-end figures from NPD BookScan (print sales only in the US), here’s how major categories performed in 2022 versus 2021, with romance in the lead. The story is much the same in the UK.
Fiction
- Romance: +52.4%
- Fantasy: +17.4%
- Horror/occult/psychological: +8.7%
- Westerns: -15.1%
- Religion: -21.2%
- Science fiction: -21.6%
Nonfiction
- Travel: +13.4%
- Biography/autobiography/memoir: -5.4%
- Self-help: -11%
- Reference: -14.1%
- General nonfiction: -15.4%
- History/law/political science: -20%
As of Jan. 22, 2023, adult fiction is performing well—so far, it’s enjoying sales growth of 4.7 percent over 2022, with Colleen Hoover in the top three bestseller spots.
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.
