NZ book sales up in 2015
New Zealand’s book sales are up in volume and value in the first half of 2015, according to new figures released by Nielsen Book.
New Zealand’s total market for the 23 weeks to 6 June comprised 1.9 million titles sold for a value of NZ$43m (A$39m), up 12% in volume and 5.7% in value compared to the same period last year.
Growth is being driven by children’s and nonfiction titles, with children’s books up 14.6% in volume and 4.3% in value, and nonfiction up 13.2% in volume and 8.9% in value. Fiction has also recorded growth in 2015 after previous declines, and is up 5.9% in volume and 1.3% in value.
Locally published titles also grew but to a lesser extent. In 2015 YTD, 338,000 titles sold for a total value of NZ$10m (A$9m), up 2.6% in volume and 5.3% in value compared to last year.
Local fiction decreased by just over 50% in both volume and value due to strong sales from Eleanor Catton’s Booker Prize-winning The Luminaries (Victoria University Press / Granta) in 2014. Catton’s novel remains the bestselling local fiction title in 2015 YTD. Local nonfiction was the strongest performing category with double-digit growth, while local children’s books are ‘under-performing against the market’.
New Zealand’s bestselling title for 2015 YTD is American Sniper (Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen & Jim DeFelice, HarperCollins), followed by Annabel Langbein’s Through the Seasons (Annabel Langbein Books / ABC Books) and Paula Hawkins’ Girl on the Train (Doubleday). Local titles and cookbooks each made up half of the overall top 10.
The indie bookseller top 10 differed markedly from the overall top 10, with only one book—Girl on the Train—making both lists. Fiction was much stronger for indie booksellers, with eight of the top 10 places taken by novels.
Nielsen Book reports that ‘anecdotally, publishers in New Zealand report e-book sales in the vicinity of 5-20% of total revenue’.
For more information about New Zealand book sales, visit the Booksellers NZ website here.
Category: Local news
