With Fantasy on Fire, Print Book Sales Are Catching Up to 2023

Spurred by huge gains in the adult fantasy genre, unit sales of print books rose 1.1% in the second quarter of 2024 over the comparable period in 2023 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. The second quarter increase was nearly enough to offset the 1.7% decline in the first quarter, putting unit sales down only 0.4% in the first half of the year. The slow improvement in print unit sales to date this year offers the industry at least some hope that a two-year slide in sales might come to an end this year.