Print Book Sales Fell 4.1% In First Nine Months of 2023

Unit sales of print books fell 4.1% in the first nine months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022, at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. A weak third quarter, in which sales dropped 6.7%, accelerated the decline; for the first half of 2023, sales were down 2.7%.

Sales in every major category fell, with the most notable development being the third-quarter swoon in adult fiction, where sales dropped 7.6%, leaving it 0.2% below the first nine months of 2022. (To be fair, adult fiction sales in last year’s third quarter had jumped 38.5% over the third quarter of 2021.) Graphic novels, which posted huge gains in 2021 and 2022, continued to see sales slide in 2023, with units down 24.3% in the nine-month period. Even with the big decline, graphic novels was the third-biggest adult fiction subcategory, trailing only general fiction and romance.

Despite cooling in the summer, the romance genre was up 16.5% over the first nine months of 2022.
more at: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/93353-print-units-fell-4-1-in-first-nine-months-of-2023.html

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