US print book sales down 4.1%

In the US, print book sales fell 4.1% in the first nine months of 2023 at outlets reporting to Circana BookScan, compared to the same period in 2022, reports Publishers Weekly.

A weak third quarter saw sales decline 6.7% compared to the same period in 2022, after sales were down 2.7% on last year in the first six months. Sales were down across every major category, including adult fiction (down 0.2%) and nonfiction (down 4.8%), juvenile fiction (down 5.9%) and nonfiction (down approximately 10%), and YA fiction (down 3.6%) and nonfiction (down 4.6%).

The romance subcategory grew 16.5%, while fantasy was up 32.4% and horror/occult/psychological increased sales by 21.2%. The travel category also rebounded 8.6%. Sales of graphic novels were down 24.3% and home and gardening titles fell 14.5%, while in juvenile fiction, the sci-fi/fantasy/magic subcategory was down 10.9%, despite Dav Pilkey’s  Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea (Dog Man #11) selling more than 923,000 copies.

The total of 526.8 million books sold through September, although down compared to 2022 and 2021, is up 3% over the same period in 2020 and 11% over 2019.

Category: International news