NPD Bookscan tabulated first week hardcover US sales of Prince Harry’s memoir SPARE of approximately 630,000 copies in the primary edition (separate from large print and Spanish-language editions). In the UK, Nielsen Bookscan counted opening week sales of 467,000 copies.
Industry Statistics
Fourth Quarter Deals
Today we report on dealmaking statistics for both the fourth quarter of 2022 as well as the full year — which means that most of our focus is on the annual trends. To recap: The first quarter continued the boom from 2021, setting a new record for overall deal volume, as reported six-figure transactions softened a little to the second-best quarter in years. The second quarter hewed more closely to the sales pattern for print books, with deal volume declining 9.1 percent, but still well ahead of previous years, as reported six-figure deals held flat with 2021, still at record […]
The New Bestsellers of 2022
As noted on Friday, backlist comprised 70 percent of all print book sales in 2022 as measured by NPD Bookscan, and in line with that roughly three quarters of Bookscan’s top 200 books of the year were also published before 2022. They range from the works of Colleen Hoover — who claimed four of the top five slots, and sold over 14.3 million copies across multiple titles — plus social media discoveries (The Body Keeps the Score), books adapted to film (Where the Crawdads Sing), perennial bestsellers (The Alchemist, Dr. Seuss), and reissues of popular titles (the illustrated edition of Harry […]
Second Best: Good Final Sales Week Leaves 2022 Print Sales Well Ahead of 2020
In the final sales week of the year, NPD Bookscan recorded print sales of approximately 16.3 million units — even with the same week in 2021, and well ahead of previous years. That was the second week in a row that sales equaled or exceeded sales from 2021, providing a strong finish to the important holiday sales period that ran stronger than preceding months. For the six-week holiday period, tracked print sales were approximately 4.6 percent below 2021, totaling close to 140 million units. That put tracked print sales for all of 2022 at a strong 780 million units — […]
Literary Arts Emergency Fund Report: Nonprofits and Publishers Are Underfunded, Provide Great Value
The Literary Arts Emergency Fund has released a report on the “state of the literary arts field in the U.S,” concluding that nonprofits and publishers are underfunded, yet provide great value to the literary world. The organization–made up of the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses, and the National Book Foundation–collaborated with marketing research firm WolfBrown to analyze 2021 applications to the Fund. Backed by the Mellon Foundation, the fund distributed $7.8 million to 376 nonprofit literary arts organizations in two cycles. The study included 410 nonprofit literary organizations and publishers that applied to the […]
AAP Adult Sales Rose in September, As Children’s Fell and Returns Increased
While holiday sales data from NPD Bookscan continues to show unit-based year-end sales consistently underperforming last year’s big performance, the AAP’s dollar-based reports from a few months ago show a more measured accounting from reporting publishers heading into the fall. Overall trade sales were $850 million, down (2.5) percent from 2021, with strong adult results and considerably weaker children’s sales. Adult sales reached $590 million, a 3.9 percent increase. Hardcover sales of $206.4 million were down (7.4) percent from $222.8 million, while paperbacks were up 19.8 percent to $207.3 million. Mass market sales increased 13.7 percent to $18.4 million. Digital […]