Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Do Best-Selling Books Reveal Reader Preferences For Writers?

  

According to Publishers Weekly, four books sold over one million copies last year. When it published the list of 2024’s Top Ten, I noticed a number of patterns.  

First, fiction is way popular than non-fiction at the top. Nine of the 10 biggest sellers were fiction.   

Nine of the 10 are for adults; one was a children’s graphic novel.  

No poetry, books of essays, or short stories made the list.  

The solo non-fiction book, Atomic Habits, with global sales topping 20 million since its release in 2018, has shown durability.  

Several of the books on the list are not even new. For instance, It Ends With Us, came out in 2016. The romance drama movie aired this past year, and then a lawsuit involving celebrity sexual assault with the principle actors kept it in the headlines.  

Three authors had multiple books on the list: Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros, and Colleen Hoover. People love a good series.  

Only two books on the top 10 were written by guys—the children’s graphic novel and the non-fiction book. Women writers clearly own the adult fiction/YA lane. And younger women. Hoover, at 45, might be the oldest of the ladies on that list.  

PW reported the number of unit sales for books rose slightly last year, to 782.7 million copies. When you add in e-books, about one billion books were purchased last year. Audiobook sales revenue keeps rising annually by double digits and surpassed the money produced by e-books but I don’t have a unit number figure.  

 

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

 

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