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US print book sales fell by only 2.6% in 2023 from 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan, following a strong final pre-Christmas week.
Publishers Weekly reported that 767 million units were sold in the US last year versus 788 million in 2022. The dip was less than the trade feared this summer, when sales were down 4.1% after the first nine months of the year.
The strong performance by Colleen Hoover and Rebecca Yarros helped drive up sales of adult fiction titles by almost 1% over 2022. However, no other category posted an increase in the year. Fantasy performed best in adult fiction with sales jumping 51.7% followed by a 24.2% increase in sales of horror/occult/physiology titles. Graphic novel sales had the biggest decline, down 22.4%, but was still the third largest subcategory within adult fiction.
Adult non-fiction sales fell 3.1%, but at a slower rate of decline than in 2022 when sales dropped 10.3%. The category received a big boost from Spare by Prince Harry and The Woman in Me by Britney Spears. Overall, sales in the biography/autobiography/memoir category increased 1.8% last year.
Children’s fiction was down 4.7% while children’s non-fiction was down 7.1%.
Overall hardcover sales fell 1.6% but held up better than trade paperbacks which declined 2.6%.
Despite sales drops, print unit sales in 2023 were still 10% ahead of the last pre-pandemic year in 2019.