A strong fourth quarter for domestic deals (+4.4 percent overall), driven by an 18 percent increase in fiction deals, lifted the year’s results to another new record total for PM deal reports. Publisher investment grew even more, setting new records overall and new records for major and significant deals. In particular: – US deals overall were up 1.9 percent, a new record total. – Adult Fiction gained again, for the seventh straight year, up 9.3 percent (on top of 2024’s gain of 10 percent). Nonfiction sales ebbed, down 1.6 percent. – Children’s deals finally broke their three-year decline, finishing flat for the year. […]
Industry Statistics
Some New Names on the Fiction Bestseller Lists
The NYT highlights five novels from “lesser known and first time writers” that “found unexpectedly broad readerships this year.” Virginia Evans’ THE CORRESPONDENT may be the biggest true sleeper of the year, building readership slowly and progressively over the summer. Circana Bookscan analyst Brenna Connor observers, “This sales trajectory is unusual for any book and almost unheard-of for a debut fiction title.” SenLinYu’s ALCHEMISED, adapted from her hit fan fiction, and Allen Levi’s originally self-published THEO OF GOLDEN both came to traditional publishing with built-in audiences, but both have fulfilled that promise and more. In a different, more modest league […]
2025: The Year in Finance
Publisher sales figures were stable this year, with most reporting companies just slightly ahead of or behind where they were in 2024. (Bloomsbury is the exception, falling from their record-breaking year in 2023, which had a new book by blockbuster romantasy author Sarah J. Maas.) Industry print sales monitored by the AAP ebbed while ebooks remained flat and audiobooks inched higher (now past the big boost from Spotify), outselling ebooks for the second year on record. (But also, AAP stats are missing data from growing publishers such as Sourcebooks and Entangled.) Here’s our roundup of results from the publicly trade […]
AAP Reports Strong Adult Sales in October
The Association of American Publishers announced sales data for October from its participating StatShot publishers, reporting trade book sales up 2.8 percent to $1.03 billion. (That makes it the second-best October recorded by the AAP, next to the massive sales of $1.042 billion in 2021, which was the best year ever for trade book sales.) Adult books rose 6 percent to a record $745 million, with $393 million in fiction (up 11.3 percent) and nonfiction just above flat at $351 million. The category saw growth in every format, with hardcovers up 8.8 percent to $336 million, paperbacks up 3.5 percent to […]
Adult and Kids Books Grow for a 10 Percent Increase in September
Trade book sales were strong in September, with the Association of American Publishers reporting $947 million in sales from participating publishers — a 10 percent increase. Both adult and children’s books grew in the month. In adult books, sales were up 11.3 percent to $662.5 million, with $359 million in fiction (up 15.4 percent) and $303 in nonfiction (up 6.8 percent). Print books led the growth, with hardcovers up 18.3 percent to $285 million and paperbacks up 17.3 percent to $201 million. Digital audio fell 3.5 percent to $76 million and ebooks fell 8 percent to $73 million. Children’s and […]
August Book Sales Fell 10 Percent
The Association of American Publishers announced August sales data from participating StatShot publishers, reporting trade sales of $716 million in the month, down 9.6 percent from last year. Adult books sold $522 million, down 10 percent. Fiction sold $304 million, down 3 percent, and adult nonfiction fell 17 percent to $218 million. Hardcovers sold $164 (down 4 percent), paperbacks sold $183 million (down 15.5 percent), digital audio sold $79.5 million (down 4 percent), and ebooks sold $75.9 million (down 4 percent). In children’s and YA books, sales fell 9.6 percent to $194 million, with $162 million in fiction sales (down […]