{"id":3255,"date":"2023-02-16T22:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T22:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/?p=3255"},"modified":"2023-02-16T22:05:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T22:05:22","slug":"latest-publishing-news-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/articles\/2023\/02\/16\/3255\/latest-publishing-news-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest publishing news"},"content":{"rendered":"

#BookTok authors help boost 2022 book sales<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s 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\u2019s category also performed strongly (up 7.7%), boosted by sales of Alice Oseman\u2019s \u2018Heartstopper\u2019 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\u2014helped by the return of international travel.<\/p>\n

Although growth in the nonfiction category was lower than fiction and children\u2019s, nonfiction still represents the largest portion of the market at 44%, with children\u2019s at 29% and fiction at 27%. Nagi Maehashi\u2019s\u00a0RecipeTin Eats: Dinner<\/em>\u00a0(Macmillan), which\u00a0set a debut-week record<\/a>\u00a0during its publication week in October, was 2022\u2019s highest selling title by value, with $4.4 million sales from 164,000 units sold.<\/p>\n

By units sold, there were three local titles in the overall top 10 bestselling books in Australia in 2022: Barefoot Kids<\/em> (HarperCollins) by Scott Pape, Maehashi\u2019s RecipeTin Eats: Dinner<\/em>, and Jane Harper\u2019s Exiles<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n

Top 10 titles in 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

    \u00a9 Nielsen BookScan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Period covered: 2 January to week ending 31 December 2022
    \nData supplied by Nielsen BookScan\u2019s book sales monitoring system from over 1,500 retailers nationwide\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Size of US self-publishing ebook market revealed in new report <\/strong><\/p>\n

    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<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Self-published ebooks comprised 51% of all ebooks sold in the US last year, but\u2014owing to the typically low sale price\u2014just 34% of revenue.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    PRH, S&S merger scrapped<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong>In late November last year, Penguin Random House (PRH) parent company Bertelsmann revealed it wouldn\u2019t appeal a\u00a0US court\u2019s decision to block its acquisition<\/a>\u00a0of Simon & Schuster (S&S).<\/p>\n

    In a statement, Bertelsmann said it will \u2018advance the growth of its global book publishing business without the previously planned merger of PRH and S&S\u2019. \u2018Following discussions with S&S shareholder Paramount Global, Bertelsmann will not pursue its original plan of appealing against the ruling,\u2019 the company said.<\/p>\n

    In a statement, PRH said that while it \u2018remains convinced that it is the best home for S&S\u2019s employees and authors, and together with Bertelsmann, we did everything possible to complete the acquisition\u2019 it has \u2018to accept Paramount\u2019s decision not to move forward\u2019.<\/p>\n

    As previously reported by\u00a0Books+Publishing<\/em>, in 2020 Bertelsmann\u00a0announced its plans to acquire S&S from media company ViacomCBS<\/a>\u00a0for US$2.175 billion (A$2.95b). It expected the deal to settle in 2021. However, the US Department of Justice\u00a0sued to block the acquisition<\/a>, alleging the move would \u2018enable 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\u2019.<\/p>\n

    Simon & Schuster is reportedly still for sale, with Paramount CEO Bob Bakish stating that S&S is a \u2018non-core asset\u2019 that \u2018does not fit strategically within Paramount\u2019s broader portfolio\u2019.<\/p>\n

    UK publishers attracting more indie authors<\/strong><\/p>\n

    According to a recent article<\/a> in the Bookseller<\/em>, there is a wave of traditional publishers releasing titles that were initially self-published.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    One publisher, Celia Killen from Orion Fiction, who signed 10 books\u2014including the self-published Magnolia Parks romance series\u2014by author Jessa Hastings in October, told the Bookseller<\/em>: \u2018The level of talent and success we\u2019re seeing from self-published authors speaks for itself, so publishers have definitely had to take notice and adapt.\u2019<\/p>\n

    \u2018I\u2019m sure it\u2019s shifted attitudes towards self-publishing but I also think it\u2019s shifting attitudes towards our own work: when you\u2019re 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\u2019re bringing to the table,\u2019 said Killen. \u2018I\u2019ve 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

    To stay up to date with all the latest local and international book industry news, subscribe to Books+Publishing <\/em>here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    #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\u2019s growth was driven by a boom in sales of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3257,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions\/3257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}