US book sales down 9% in first quarter

In the US, the number of print books sold was down 8.9% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year, reports Publishers Weekly.

Unit sales totalled 183.9 million, down from 201.9 million a year ago. Sales were still up around 16% on the first quarter of 2020, when sales first began to soften due to Covid-19 lockdowns.

Despite the overall sales drop from 2021, adult fiction sales were up thanks to BookTok favourites Colleen Hoover and Taylor Jenkins Reid. Adult nonfiction was down 10.7% on the same period in 2021, and juvenile fiction was down 14.2%. YA sales were flat.

By format, mass market paperback unit sales were down 21%, while trade paperback had the smallest decline, down 5%.

Category: International news