Book sales continue to look good for 2024. Circana BookScan’s half-year report shows that print book sales are down just a half percent versus last year.
Going deeper:
- AAP shows a 5.5 percent increase in book sales. The latest report from the Association of American Publishers shows a 5.5 percent increase in sales over 2023 for the first five months of the year. As usual, adult fiction—up by 12 percent this year—is driving gains, along with religious press sales.
- Sales of children’s middle-grade books keep declining, according to Circana BookScan. So far, print sales are down 5 percent this year, which represents the biggest sales decline among all children’s age groups. Unfortunately, the category has been experiencing declining sales for two years after peaking in 2021. But why? Part of it is post-pandemic related, but BookScan analysts believe more screen time is also to blame. Learn more. Publishers Marketplace reports (sub required) that during the second quarter of 2024, deals for children’s middle-grade books fell by 38 percent. (Picture books declined 21 percent.)
- Also declining, as usual: nonfiction, particularly memoir and self-help. Partly this is because last year saw some blockbuster sales for Prince Harry’s memoir.
- Big Five publisher Hachette has enjoyed a sales increase of 7.7 percent so far this year in the US. Parent company Lagardère attributed overall corporate growth to better print and audiobook sales. Learn more.
Book Riot podcast First Edition recently hosted a conversation with Brenna Connor at BookScan to discuss what’s selling, what’s trending, and what retailers are doing.
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.
