Book sales

The Children's market is heading for its second biggest full year in value terms, dipping just 2.4% on the same period in 2022. At 41.9 million books sold for £255.8m up to 9th September, 2023 looks set to become only the second year to bring in over £400m, after 2022 surpassed the milestone to become the biggest full year for value of all time.

Adult fiction has been publishing's steadiest-selling category for the past 18 months. Unit sales of print adult fiction books were up 8.5% in 2022 over 2021 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan, making it the only category to post an increase last year. In the first six months of 2023, adult fiction was once again the only category to register an increase, with sales up 4.2%.  Read more

After unit sales of print books were basically flat in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 2022, they finished the first half of the year down 2.7%. Sales fell from 363.4 million in the first six months of 2022 to 353.5 million this year at outlets that report to Circana BookScan.

This week the Guardian suggested that books could continue to outperform other entertainment goods as the wider economy faces financial uncertainty, asserting that readers would return to books as other more expensive modes of diversion are cast off.

Trade figures have described the non-fiction market's struggles against streaming channels, the cost of living crisis and depleted attention spans but stress a thirst for "solutions-based" publishing continues.  Read more