After making strikingly strong sales during the pandemic, print books had a 6.5% drop in unit sales in 2022. The numbers remain steady in Q1 2023, and this was largely due to Prince Harry’s Spare, which is a 2023 non-fiction bestseller for now.
Prince Harry’s explosive memoir sold more than 3.2 million copies globally in the first week of its publication. But in Q2 2023, no title has managed to surpass or even match its sales level.
The trends for the first six months of 2023 are no surprise: sales of adult fiction are up, with declines in the other major categories. And, as has been the case for a while, backlist is doing better than frontlist, with backlist sales down 2.1% compared to frontlist’s 4.2% drop.
The first half of 2023 noticed a minimal gain in the sales of adult fiction, while the sales in other categories declined or remained soft. It’s also worth noting that backlist is doing better than frontlist, with backlist sales declining by 2.1% compared to frontlist’s 4.2% decline.
Image credit: publishersweekly
New releases helped make romance the fastest-growing adult fiction genre in the first six months of the year, with sales up 34.6%. The horror/occult/psychology and fantasy genres also had strong gains, with sales up 32.5% and 26.5%, respectively. The high-flying graphic novels category cooled off in the period, with units down 22.7%; even with the decline, graphic novels, with unit sales of 13.8 million, was the third-largest genre in adult fiction.
Romance is the fastest-growing adult fiction genre for the first half of 2023, thanks to new releases, seeing sales increase by 34.6%. The horror, occult, psychology, and fantasy genres also witnessed sales increase, while high-flying graphic novels cooled off in this period. Sales by format remained consistent, with hardcover sales down by 3.9% and paperback sales down by 1.8%.
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.
