Trendspotting Links of Interest: August 4, 2021

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Big-Picture Publishing Trends

  • Yes, Americans are reading more. According to the US Department of Labor, reading time increased by 21 percent between May and December 2020. The biggest increase was among readers between 20 and 34 years old and over 65. Read Jim Milliot in Publishers Weekly.
  • One of the fastest growing retail channels: the dollar store. The category is remainder driven, but there are opportunities for new books for children, if publishers can make the economics work. Read Karen Raugust at Publishers Weekly.

Category Trends

  • Comics go to school. The Velocity of Content podcast has a conversation with Guy LeCharles Gonzalez about the explosion of comics over the past 10 years. Listen.
  • Similarly, there is monster sales growth in graphic novels. The same podcast also hosts Andrew Albanese from Publishers Weekly, discussing the strength of the graphic novel format. Listen.
  • French teenagers flock to manga. When the French government gave 300 Euros to every 18-year-old in the country for cultural purchases, books—mostly manga—represented 75 percent of all purchases. Read Aurelien Breeden at The New York Times.
  • Travel guidebooks take a cautious approach in 2021. Most publishers are adopting a local-centric strategy as the pandemic continues to disrupt travel. Read Daniel Lefferts in Publishers Weekly.
  • UK editors seek escapist and historical fiction. One editor tells The Bookseller there’s continuing interest in “historical fiction which shines a light on those narratives which we may have never heard. … Often these books are set in a time and place in the past, but they are intensely contemporary in their concerns and focus.” Such novels offer a “smart and appealing” way to write about the current moment. Read more in The Bookseller (subscription required).