Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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US print book sales up 8.9% in 2021

In the US, print book sales were up 8.9% in 2021 compared to 2020, according to NPD BookScan data, reports Publishers Weekly.

A total of 825.7 million print book were sold, up from 757.9 million in 2020. In 2020, unit sales were up 8.2% over 2019, with 693.7 million print units sold.

The YA segment had the largest increase, growing 30.7%. Adult fiction sales were up 25.5% and sales in the juvenile fiction category grew 9.6%, while adult nonfiction sales rose 4.4%.

The only category to have a sales decline was juvenile nonfiction, which dropped 6.2%. The decline, however, was expected after the category hit record levels in 2020 as parents looked for books to educate and entertain children stuck at home due to school closures.

The 9.6% increase in juvenile fiction sales was led by several big sellers, including titles by Dav Pilkey and Jeff Kinney. Gains in the young adult category were helped by several titles that were promoted by BookTok, users of the social media platform TikTok who post about their favourite books, including Adam Silvera’s 2018 They Both Die at the End, which sold nearly 685,000 copies.

 

Category: International news