Print Book Sales Climbing Higher

Print book sales are continuing to build on the gains they made in 2014.  The biggest growth is coming from the most important area – juvenile non-fiction.

According to sales tracked by Nielsen Book Scan, which is said to capture up to 80% of all book sales, print unit totals rose 3% in the first quarter of 2015 compared to a year ago.

Adult fiction was up the littlest amount = 1%, and juvenile non-fiction spiked the most = 16%.  It varied greatly by sub-genre.  Biography/Memoir for adults shot up 32% while Occult/Psychological Horror for adults plummeted 19%.

Few categories for juveniles showed declines (History/Sports and General Juvenile Fiction), while many showed explosive growth, including Holidays/Festival/Religion (both in fiction and nonfiction).  Hobbies (26%) and Animals (both fiction and nonfiction) also jumped high.

What we don’t know from these sales numbers is this:

·         Did print sales gains come at the expense of e-book sales?

·         Did print books sales rise from in-store sales or online sales?

·         Is print book revenue – and the net profit – up for print books?

In any event, a rise in print books is great news for the industry.

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015