In our last issue, we offered a look at 2016 sales for traditional publishing; here’s a preview of how 2017 is shaping up.
NPD BookScan, which tracks US book sales (mainly traditional publishing sales, or books with ISBNs), just released a report showing that print sales are still increasing—up by 2.6 percent compared to the first half of 2016. More specifically, retail sales (dominated by Amazon and chain bookstores) are up 4 percent, while mass merchandising sales are down 8 percent. Ebook sales are tracked separately, and that data is not yet available for the first half of 2017, but early reports show a decline once again. Frontlist print book sales are down 3 percent, while backlist sales are up 6 percent.
A few of the top print books for the first half of 2017 include the poetry book Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur (notable because it was first self-published), Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and Camino Island by John Grisham.
Here are highlights of available first-half reports coming in from the major publishers:
- Simon & Schuster is seeing about a 10 percent increase in sales this quarter from a year ago, led by growth in print and digital audio. Double-digit growth was seen in the audio, international, and children’s divisions.
- Pearson has announced another major round of layoffs and is selling a portion of its stake in Penguin Random House to Bertelsmann. But its sales for the first half of the year are up 1 percent.
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reported a net sales increase of 3 percent for the first half of the year.
- Lagardère reported a 10 percent increase in sales for Hachette UK, helped by John Grisham’s latest release.
- HarperCollins just closed its fiscal 2017 with a reported sales decline of 6 percent, due to lower sales in children’s.
Bottom line: We take particular note of the strong backlist sales and soft frontlist sales for traditional publishers, who seem to be having trouble breaking out a nationwide bestseller from an author whose name is not Rowling or Grisham. BookScan’s list of top 10 print books for the year includes only one title published in 2017: Camino Island by John Grisham. Half of the list was published prior to 2015.
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.
