Books Market Research & Business Solutions

Print book sales are trending upward, due to growth in adult nonfiction titles, specifically religious books, cookbooks, and political books. Sales volume in the first half of 2018 rose 2 percent, year over year, to reach 317 million units, according to The NPD Group.

Cookbook category sales are rising faster than warm dough so far this year. In fact, sales grew 21 percent in the first half of 2018 compared to the first half of 2017.

Political e-books are also one of the few categories experiencing growth in digital book sales.

The rising popularity of poetry on social media is driving a resurgence in poetry book sales in the United States. In fact according to global information company The NPD Group, twelve of the top 20 bestselling poetry authors in 2017 were “Instapoets,” who combine their original poetry with images, creating highly shareable posts on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and other social media platforms. In fact, almost half (47 percent) of poetry books sold in the U.S. last year were written by Instapoets. Alongside the rise in Instapoets, the poetry book category in the United States has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent since 2015, making it one of the fastest growing categories in publishing.

Licensed books feature popular characters from movies, TV, games, toys, and lifestyle brands, where the publisher has paid the original intellectual property owner for the right to publish the character or property in book form. For all books sold in 2017, licenses made up 12 percent of sales, reaching 85 million units, and 28 percent of all children’s book sales last year, with 63 million units sold, according to global information company The NPD Group.

Without Harry Potter and other leading franchise titles upping the ante, print book sales in the United States returned to a more standard year for the industry in 2017. Unit sales of books increased 1.9 percent in 2017, which is slightly less than annual growth rates of 3 percent posted between 2013 to 2016, according to global information company The NPD Group.

During the holidays, many families like to get cozy, heat up some hot chocolate and snuggle on the couch with a good book. According to the latest NPD BookScan information from global information company The NPD Group, when it comes to holiday reading, families favor classics over brand new seasonal titles. In fact, unit sales of all holiday titles are up 10 percent so far this year, compared to last year. Among the top 10 holiday titles for kids, 9 are older titles, while just one was published this year.

While the annual unit sales growth of print books is expected to be slightly weaker this year than in the previous two years, global information company The NPD Group predicts a strong holiday season with 5 percent unit sales growth in the remaining five weeks. The print books market is on track to grow 2 percent in volume for the year, which is an underperformance against the annual growth rate of 3 percent in 2015 and 2016.

According to global information provider The NPD Group, through the end of July 2017, print travel books have experienced 2 percent growth in unit sales, and an overall compound annual growth rate of 1 percent from 2014 to 2016 in the U.S. This is a notable turnaround after a steep 44 percent decline from 2010-2014, and proof that readers are returning to print guidebooks even in the digital age.