#BookTok authors help boost 2022 book sales

The Australian print book market grew 7.2% last year to $1.3 billion, up from $1.26 billion in 2021, according to Nielsen BookScan. The total number of unit sales for 2022 was 70.9 million, an 8.2% year-on-year increase.

Last year’s growth was driven by a boom in sales of adult fiction (19.4%), led by interest in titles by #BookTok phenom Colleen Hoover, while the children’s category also performed strongly (up 7.7%), boosted by sales of Alice Oseman’s ‘Heartstopper’ series following the Netflix adaptation in May; graphic novels were also up 34%. Nonfiction saw small growth of 0.4%, supported by the sales of the atlases, maps and travel category, which was up 51% at $16.3 million—helped by the return of international travel.

Although growth in the nonfiction category was lower than fiction and children’s, nonfiction still represents the largest portion of the market at 44%, with children’s at 29% and fiction at 27%. Nagi Maehashi’s RecipeTin Eats: Dinner (Macmillan), which set a debut-week record during its publication week in October, was 2022’s highest selling title by value, with $4.4 million sales from 164,000 units sold.

By units sold, there were three local titles in the overall top 10 bestselling books in Australia in 2022: Barefoot Kids (HarperCollins) by Scott Pape, Maehashi’s RecipeTin Eats: Dinner, and Jane Harper’s Exiles. In total, four Colleen Hoover books made the top 10. Hoover was the highest selling author by value, with $18.3 million from 1.2 million units sold.

Top 10 titles in 2022

1. It Ends With Us (Colleen Hoover, S&S)
2. Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens, Hachette)
3. Barefoot Kids (Scott Pape, HarperCollins)
4. It Starts with Us (Colleen Hoover, S&S)
5. RecipeTin Eats: Dinner (Nagi Maehashi, Pan Macmillan)
6. Exiles (Jane Harpe, Pan Macmillan)
7. Verity (Colleen Hoover, Hachette)
8. Atomic Habits (James Clear, PRH)
9. Ugly Love (Colleen Hoover, S&S)
10. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Taylor Jenkins Reid, S&S)

© Nielsen BookScan    Period covered: 2 January to week ending 31 December 2022
Data supplied by Nielsen BookScan’s book sales monitoring system from over 1,500 retailers nationwide  

Size of US self-publishing ebook market revealed in new report

A new report from US data services company Bookstat has revealed that sales of self-published ebook titles totalled approximately US$874 million (A$1.3b) in 2022, reports Publishers Weekly.

Self-published ebooks comprised 51% of all ebooks sold in the US last year, but—owing to the typically low sale price—just 34% of revenue.

Bookstat covers an estimated 93% of all US ebook sales, 95% of audiobook sales, and 93% of online print book sales, including real time data collection from Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble.

PRH, S&S merger scrapped

 In late November last year, Penguin Random House (PRH) parent company Bertelsmann revealed it wouldn’t appeal a US court’s decision to block its acquisition of Simon & Schuster (S&S).

In a statement, Bertelsmann said it will ‘advance the growth of its global book publishing business without the previously planned merger of PRH and S&S’. ‘Following discussions with S&S shareholder Paramount Global, Bertelsmann will not pursue its original plan of appealing against the ruling,’ the company said.

In a statement, PRH said that while it ‘remains convinced that it is the best home for S&S’s employees and authors, and together with Bertelsmann, we did everything possible to complete the acquisition’ it has ‘to accept Paramount’s decision not to move forward’.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, in 2020 Bertelsmann announced its plans to acquire S&S from media company ViacomCBS for US$2.175 billion (A$2.95b). It expected the deal to settle in 2021. However, the US Department of Justice sued to block the acquisition, alleging the move would ‘enable Penguin Random House, which is already the largest book publisher in the world, to exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work’.

Simon & Schuster is reportedly still for sale, with Paramount CEO Bob Bakish stating that S&S is a ‘non-core asset’ that ‘does not fit strategically within Paramount’s broader portfolio’.

UK publishers attracting more indie authors

According to a recent article in the Bookseller, there is a wave of traditional publishers releasing titles that were initially self-published.

Publishers and agents cited in the article said the rise of TikTok is contributing to a new form of publishing that is more collaborative with creators, with traditional publishers needing to adapt their strategies to justify the extra value they can bring to titles that were initially self-published.

One publisher, Celia Killen from Orion Fiction, who signed 10 books—including the self-published Magnolia Parks romance series—by author Jessa Hastings in October, told the Bookseller: ‘The level of talent and success we’re seeing from self-published authors speaks for itself, so publishers have definitely had to take notice and adapt.’

‘I’m sure it’s shifted attitudes towards self-publishing but I also think it’s shifting attitudes towards our own work: when you’re approaching an author who has already had huge success on their own, you have to be very clear and confident about what extra value you’re bringing to the table,’ said Killen. ‘I’ve found it makes for very collaborative partnerships with authors who have incredible hands-on publishing experience and a forensic understanding of what works for their audience.’

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