This is an interesting article about how the sales of books has increased in some categories and decreased in others.
Total Sales of Print Books (in thousands)
| Jan. 6, 2018 | Jan. 5, 2019 | Chge Week | Chge YTD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 12,286 | 13,434 | 9.3% | 9.3% |
Unit Sales of Print Books by Category (in thousands)
| Jan. 6, 2018 | Jan. 5, 2019 | Chge Week | Chge YTD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adult Nonfiction | 5,647 | 6,060 | 7.3% | 7.3% |
| Adult Fiction | 2,447 | 2,495 | 2.0% | 2.0% |
| Juvenile Nonfiction | 758 | 887 | 14.3% | 14.3% |
| Juvenile Fiction | 2,172 | 2,528 | 16.4% | 16.4% |
| Young Adult Fiction | 381 | 428 | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| Young Adult Nonfiction | 32 | 36 | 12.4% | 12.4% |
Unit Sales of Print Books by Format (in thousands)
| Jan. 6, 2018 | Jan. 5, 2019 | Chge Week | Chge YTD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 3,206 | 3,809 | 18.8% | 18.8% |
| Trade Paperback | 6,583 | 6,828 | 3.7% | 3.7% |
| Mass Market Paperback | 1,013 | 951 | -6.2% | -6.2% |
| Board Books | 595 | 667 | 34.7% | 34.7% |
| Audio | 47 | 35 | -25.2% | -25.2% |
It’s interesting how audio books fell, the same for mass market books. Yet the trade paperback rose, along with hardcover and board books. Part of the increase in trade paperback could be because self published authors and some publishers use that size a lot, including this publisher. It could be because of the rise in print on demand services, which almost exclusively use the trade size.
There is no comparison to e-books in this article, so I don’t know how those numbers relate in sales. That will be researched and discussed in a future posting.
What it does show is print books are on the rise. They are selling. And the genre that seems to be doing the best is juvenile/young adult books.
It will be interesting to see what happens with 2019.
