U.S. Print Book Sales Rose Again in 2016
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According to a report this past week by Publishers Weekly (New York, N.Y., USA), despite a less-than-ideal environment—no breakout bestsellers on the adult fiction side and a lengthy, brutal election cycle that sucked nearly all of the air out of the cultural conversation—unit sales of print books were up 3.3% in 2016 over 2015. Total print unit sales hit 674 million, marking the third-straight year of growth, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 80% of print sales in the U.S.
Most print formats had an outstanding year, with hardcover up 5.4%, trade paperback up 4%, and board books up 7.4%.
Mass market has been an exception - it has been on the wane since the introduction of e-books, and its slide continued in 2016 with a 7.7% drop in unit sales. Physical audio, where sales were down 13.5% on the year, also took a big hit from digital.
The largest gains came in the adult nonfiction category, where sales were up 6.9% from 2015.
Several subcategories posted substantial increases, among them crafts and hobbies, where the adult coloring book boom—though slowing down from 2015’s blitz—continues to have a large impact. The religion and self-help areas also saw boosts, though for different reasons.
Adult fiction had an off year, with sales down 1%. Nearly all fiction subcategories closed out the year lower than in 2015. The lone bright spot in fiction was comics and graphic novels, which had a 12% increase on the year.
Juvenile fiction stayed relatively flat, up a tenth of a percent from 2015, and was led by the year’s far-and-away bestselling title overall, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2, which sold 4.5 million print copies.
The mass merchandiser channel, which includes large chains such as Walmart and Costco, saw sales drop for the third year in a row, down 5.3%. Its losses were more than made up for in the retail and club channel, where sales climbed 5%. That channel is composed of independent and chain bookstores, as well as Amazon.
