Print books have seen a slight decrease in books constantly this year as print books sales have dropped by 6 percent compared to the same time last year.
Print Book Sales Fall in Early May
After the week ended in May 14, sales decreased by 6.9% during the same time last year. It has followed the trend of decreasing print units over the course of 2022 so far according to data from NPD BookScan. The cause may be related to inflation and cost of most goods increasing due to inflation.
Adult Fiction Sees Increase in Sales
But even that couldn’t stop the popularity of adult fiction, the only category that saw an increase in sales. They are that one person in the group project that carries everyone else. Adult fiction saw an increase of 0.9 percent which is even more amazing when you realize no new novel has had a strong performance to up the sales.
Leading in sales is the novel Book Lovers by Emily Henry with more than 36,000 copies sold. The latest novel to make an impact on the list is Death Note Short Stories which sold a little over 16,000 which helped the novel land eight highest on the list.
Adult Nonfiction Doesn’t Do Well
A category that hasn’t done well is the adult nonfiction category which saw sales fall by 10%. Leading the category in sales was Killing the Killers by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard with around 23,000 units sold.
Juvenile Fiction Struggles
Juvenile fiction also saw a decrease in sales of 6.8% compared to 2021. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Suess topped the category with over 44,000 copies sold. Dr. Suess novels almost always tend to do well and that has not changed. No new juvenile fiction novel has even cracked the top 50 juvenile fiction bestsellers list which explains the drop in sales.
Juvenile Nonfiction Struggles Even More
The juvenile nonfiction category faired even worse with a drop in sales of 10.7%. They didn’t see any novels crack the top 50 list either and didn’t have Dr. Suess to ease the burden.
Conclusion
That is the current look of print units. Not a great one but with a lot of things going on in the world, people aren’t going to spend on books. There is still a lot of 2022 left so this pattern may change. Or a new book may surge in popularity and help the book industry.
Do you think that the closing of Amazon book stores may have also impacted sales? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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