UK summer paperback fiction sales up 10%

In the UK, paperback fiction sales for the 12 weeks from 30 June were up about 10% on the same period in 2023, reports the Bookseller.

Bolstered by the success of titles from Colleen Hoover, Claire Douglas, Freida McFadden and Sarah J Maas, over 14 million paperbacks were sold in this summer period, according to details reported by the Bookseller from Nielsen BookScan’s total consumer market fiction category—a result that shows a volume increase of over a million copies (9.8%) on the same period last year, while the value of sales is up 10% to £101.7m (A$196.9m).

The Bookseller noted that the average selling price also rose slightly during this period, ‘suggesting that the surge has been driven by higher footfall rather than any price discounting’.

This follows news from the US, reported by Publishers Weekly, that showed that trade publishers’ sales in the first six months of 2024 were also up, rising 3.9% over the same period in 2023, to a total of US$3.9 billion (A$5.8b), with adult book sales responsible for the rise, with a 6.7% overall increase and a 11.3% jump in fiction sales.

Category: International news