US print sales continue to grow in first half of 2017

US print sales in the first half of 2017 have increase 3% in volume compared to the first six months of 2016, despite the lack of a breakout print title, reports Publishers Weekly.

Sales per volume in the first half of 2017 reached 310.7 million according to NPD BookScan, up from 302.8 million during the same period in 2016, with backlist titles driving much of the gain.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go (Dr Seuss, HarperCollins) was the bestselling title in the first half of this year in the US, selling more than 482,000 copies. It was also the bestselling title in the same period in 2016, with 458,000 copies sold.

Sale units rose across all four major segments recorded by NPD BookScan: juvenile fiction, juvenile nonfiction, adult nonfiction and adult fiction. Juvenile fiction saw the greatest growth, up 5% compared to the first half of 2016. Aside from Oh the Places You’ll Go, the segment benefited from two editions of Thirteen Reasons Why (Jay Asher, Penguin), which was turned into a Netflix series and sold around 500,000 copies across both editions.

Juvenile nonfiction rose 4% in the first half of the year, led by well-established titles such as First 100 Words (Roger Priddy, Priddy Books), which sold almost 195,000 copies.

Adult fiction rose marginally by 0.7% compared to the first six months of 2016. Again, the top titles were drawn from the backlist, with A Man Called Ove (Fredrick Backman, Hachette) selling 451,000 copies and The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood, Vintage) selling 325,000 copies.

Adult nonfiction unit sales rose 2%, after increasing 12% in the first half of 2016 over 2015 due to the popularity of adult colouring books. That popularity appears to be cooling, with sale units dropping in the two categories home to adult colouring books: art/architecture/design/photography, which was down 33% compared to 2016, and crafts/hobbies/antiques/games, down 30%.

By format, board books saw the greatest growth in the first half of 2017, up 10%, while mass-market paperback and audio were down nine percent and eight percent, respectively. Increased sale units were also recorded in the hardcover and trade paperback formats.

Category: International news