Helped by a 1.7% improve within the fourth quarter, unit gross sales of print books fell solely 2.6% in 2023 from 2022 at shops that report back to Circana BookScan. The dip was lower than many business members had feared this summer season, when gross sales had been steadily declining and had been down 4.1% after the primary 9 months of the 12 months. Eight titles bought multiple million print copies in 2023, the identical quantity that topped that degree in 2022, 5 of which got here from two authors: Colleen Hoover had three titles crack the million-copy mark and Rebecca Yarros had two.
The robust efficiency by Hoover and Yarros helped drive up gross sales of grownup fiction titles by virtually 1% over 2022, a strong efficiency contemplating gross sales within the class jumped 8.5% in 2022 over 2021. No different class posted a rise within the 12 months, although the declines in most segments had been far much less in 2023 than in 2022. Inside grownup fiction, the fantasy style carried out greatest, with gross sales leaping 51.7%, led by Yarros’s two bestsellers, adopted by a 24.2% improve in gross sales of horror/occult/physiology titles. Graphic novel gross sales had the largest decline, down 22.4%, however was nonetheless the third largest subcategory inside grownup fiction.
Gross sales within the largest print section, grownup nonfiction, fell 3.1% in 2023, a a lot slower fee of decline than in 2022, when gross sales dropped 10.3%. The class obtained an enormous increase from two memoirs, Spare by Prince Harry, which bought greater than 1.2 million copies, and The Lady in Me by Britney Spears, which bought greater than 908,000 print copies. Total, gross sales within the biography/autobiography/memoir class elevated 1.8% final 12 months, topped solely by the 6.4% improve within the faith section and the three.8% achieve in journey.
Whereas general grownup gross sales held up pretty nicely in 2023, kids’s gross sales continued to wrestle, with juvenile down 4.7% and nonfiction off 7.1%. Dav Pilkey’s Canine Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Beneath the Sea was the highest vendor in juvenile fiction, promoting virtually 1.1 million copies, whereas Jeff Kinney’s latest Wimpy Child title, No Brainer, bought greater than 715,000 copies.
The 12 months noticed one thing of a bounce again for frontlist gross sales, which declined solely 3.1% final 12 months in comparison with over 10% a 12 months in the past, whereas backlist dipped 2.6%, from a decline of three.7% in 2022.
Gross sales efficiency by format was one thing of a shock in that hardcover gross sales, regardless of worth will increase, held up higher than commerce paperback, with hardcover gross sales falling 1.6% in comparison with a decline of two.6% for commerce paperback. Mass market paperback all however disappeared final 12 months, with gross sales falling 15.6% and accounting for simply 3.4% of all models bought. Board ebook gross sales had been principally flat at 48 million copies.
Nonetheless forward of 2019
Regardless of the 2023 gross sales drop of two.6% and the extra pronounced decline of 6.5% between 2021 and 2022, print unit gross sales in 2023 had been nonetheless 10% forward of the final prepandemic 12 months in 2019. Throughout 2023, most publishers took painful steps to handle the overstaffing they engaged in to satisfy the upper gross sales of 2020–2022, and with the inflation-induced larger prices moderating in current months it’s hoped that the lengthy sought-after new regular might lastly settle in in 2024. In fact, publishers observe that 2024 additionally brings with it a number of uncertainty, together with a presidential election, and many questions and considerations about what AI will convey to the ebook enterprise.
A model of this text appeared within the 01/08/2024 concern of Publishers Weekly beneath the headline: Print Gross sales Decline Eased in 2023
