29 Book sales figures 2023, facts and trends (2023)

FAQs

How can you find out how many copies of a book have been sold? ›

In general, (with a few exceptions), there are no published resources which track sales figures for individual book titles. Magazines and periodicals that publish weekly bestseller lists (e.g. "Publisher's Weekly," newspaper literary supplements) will sometimes include sales figures for items which appear on the list.

In the book's lifetime

By comparison, the average traditionally published book sells 3,000 copies, but as I mentioned above, only about 250-300 of those sales happen in the first year. For a traditional publisher to think of a nonfiction book as a success, it has to sell more like 10,000 copies over its lifetime.

Trade paperbacks accounted for 60% of unit sales in 2022, up from 57% in 2021, while hardcovers' share of the market declined from 33% in 2021 to 30% last year. Adult fiction was the only one of the major categories to have a sales increase last year over 2021, with print unit sales up 8.5%.

The average book in America sells about 500 copies. Those blockbusters are a minute anomaly: only 10 books sold more than a million copies last year, and fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000. So are all the rest of the books simply failed blockbusters? Of course not.

You can find out how many copies of a book or pamphlet are in libraries and archives through a service called WorldCat. WorldCat is the world's largest bibliographic database; more than 71,000 libraries report their holdings to WorldCat.

If you want to find out how many print copies the book is selling, just click the Paperback or Hardcover edition of the book on Amazon, scroll down to Product Details on that page, and find the Amazon Best Sellers Rank for the print edition.

Leading up to the fall semester, late July and early August are the ideal times to sell your books. This is because companies know this is the last chance to acquire additional inventory prior to the start of classes.

When all things are considered, the most popular book genre depends on the format and situation. The bestselling book genre is romance and the most profitable fiction book genre. Religious & inspirational books are the most popular non-fiction genre, whilst thrillers are the most popular audiobooks.

Over 82% of all books sold during November are print books, higher than the annual average. Over the last 5 years, book sales revenue for December has constantly been over $1 billion. November and December sales account for over 21% of the annual revenue of US bookstores.

Most publishing studies reveal that a new book, on average, will sell around 250 copies and no more than 2000 copies in its lifetime. Since this is what the majority of books do, then selling more than this amount would technically make your book a bestseller.

How do books become best sellers? ›

Regardless of which list you want to make, to land on any bestseller list, generally you must sell at least 5,000 books in one week. This is the minimum sales goal. You may need to sell 10,000 copies in one week.

Most self-published authors sell 250 books or less, regardless of how many different books they write. Traditionally published books sell around 3,000 copies on average, with only 250 of those sales in the first year. It's rare that books sell over 100,000 copies and even rarer to sell more than a million.

To make the list, it is estimated that novels sell from 1,000 to 10,000 copies per week, depending on competition. Median sales fluctuate between 4,000 and 8,000 in fiction, and 2,000–6,000 in nonfiction. The majority of New York Times bestselling books sell from 10,000 to 100,000 copies in their first year.

But while books of all sizes have cracked the list at one point or another, the vast majority of #1 bestsellers fall into a much smaller range. Over 64% of the #1 bestsellers since the list began have fallen in the 200 to 400 page range.

Identifying the first edition of a book

The publisher may actually state the words 'first edition' or 'first printing' on the copyright page. Another common method of identification is the number line – that's a line of numbers on the copyright page. Usually, if a one is present in the line then it's a first edition.

The Dates. If the date on a copyright page matches the date on the title page, it's likely that your copy is a first edition. These dates can differ if the publication date is earlier than copyright is acquired, but if this is the indicator used you will want to ensure both dates match.

While the number line doesn't necessarily determine the edition, it will tell you how many times the book has been printed. If there's still a number one in the line, then it means it could be the first edition.

In determining the value of a book there are three basic elements: 1) rarity, 2) condition, and, 3) demand. Books with the most value normally have all three of these elements, and the loss of any will likely result in a loss of value. Age of the book is not always a key factor in value.

At the top end, only 0.4% of books sold 100k copies or more. For a book to be commercially viable, it needs to sell over 5,000 copies. The more frightening statistic is that 86% of books published sell less than the magic 5k break-even number. The fact is, most books don't sell a lot of copies and don't make any money.

How much does an author make per copy of book sold? ›

Self-published authors can make between 40% – 60% royalties on a the retail price of a single book while traditionally published authors usually make between 10%-12% royalties.

Since most major bestselling lists are compiled on Tuesdays, the wisdom seems to be, a Tuesday release gives the title a full week to garner sales and gain some kind of traction. Readers and booksellers alike look forward to Tuesdays because of the hot-off-the-press literary offerings.

Peak reading and buying season is very much tied to the weather. February and March are generally good times to release a book because the weather's not great, so people will be stuck inside, browsing the web and looking for something to read.

If you are looking to maximize book sales, consider prices in the lower range: for example, your eBook at $3.99 and your paperback at $10.99–$12.99. These prices work well for a first-time author with only one book. If you want readers to see you as a valuable but not overpriced author, go for mid-range pricing.

However, books for kids ages 4 to 8 enjoyed the highest sales volume overall, with 88 million units sold in 2021 versus 64 million units of middle-grade books.

Millennials are the most voracious readers, with 80% of Millennials having read a book in the last 12 months. They are also the biggest library-goers of the five generations.

Book sales are declining, but not in the romance genre : NPR. Book sales are declining, but not in the romance genre Romance books are on the rise, even as overall book sales are declining. NPR's Juana Summers visited a romance book club at Baltimore's Charm City Books to see what brings readers to the genre.

The 38-year-old ex-soldier added that while serving in Afghanistan, he had killed 25 Taliban. Prince Harry's memoir “Spare” sold 1.43 million copies in just 24 hours in the UK, US and Canada, setting a Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time.

Most writers can finish a rough draft in about 6 months. But I've seen some writer blaze through a draft in 4 weeks, while others take two or three years. How long are most novels?

How much does the average best seller make? ›

How much do authors make for a bestseller? The amount bestselling authors make depends on their royalty rate for their books and the amount of books they sell. Traditionally published bestselling authors usually earn a 10% royalty rate, whereas self-published bestselling authors make a 60% royalty rate.

From 2011 to 2017, the average bestseller was over 400 pages long each year. Since 2018, that was the case only in 2020, a year heavily affected by the pandemic. The median value of bestsellers length also shows a decline over time, with a 32-page drop from 2018 to 2021.

book which has an enhanced value because the demand for the book exceeds the supply, usually because of its importance, scarcity, age, condition, physical and aesthetic properties, association, or subject matter. If there is no demand for a book, it will probably not become a rare book even if the other factors exist.

Having sold more than 600 million copies worldwide, Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is the best-selling book series in history. The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.

Unfortunately, book sales never come that easy for anyone. It is hard to sell a book if you haven't correctly identified your target audience and marketed to them appropriately. Authors also face challenges with book sales if the book is poorly priced or its cover isn't appealing.

While first-person writing offers intimacy and immediacy between narrator and reader, third-person narration offers the potential for both objectivity and omniscience. This effectively makes both forms of narration appealing to both first-time and seasoned writers.

Nearly 60% of respondents to the ALLI survey said their income had risen in 2022 over 2021. The average income of respondents was over $82,600 last year, an increase of 34%. The discrepancy between the median and average author income is the result of outliers on both the high end of the earning pool and the low end.

The bottom line is that only book publishers have comprehensive sales data, and they don't usually make the information public. If you are looking for historical statistics for particular books, publishers' archives are the only reliable source.

To achieve bestseller status on the Times not only do you have to sell at least 5,000 – 10,000 copies in one week, but these sales have to be diverse sales. That is, you cannot sell 10,000 books to a pre-existing list of followers through a personal website or thousands from only one marketplace like Barnes and Noble.

How many copies of a book make it a best seller? ›

If you want to be a bestselling author on the NY Times list, you must sell between 5,000-10,000 copies of your book in one week, but the sales cannot all come from one entity. Your book sales must be distributed.

The bestselling book genre is romance and the most profitable fiction book genre.

The category and window of your release all significantly impact the number of copies required to hit the NYT bestseller list, but 5,000 copies during any one-week period is the minimum.

Books can be labeled as a "National Bestseller" once they've appeared on a bestseller list published in a national publication, like The National Post. An "International Bestseller" appears on lists across at least two countries. Books can claim "#1 bestseller" status if, you guessed it, they appeared in the #1 spot.

A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains.

So, if the average novel is around 90,000 words, that breaks down to about 360 double-spaced pages. Here are a few more quick conversions to save you from having to do the math: A 50,000-word book is about 200 pages. A 60,000-word book is about 240 pages.

Self-published authors can make between 40% – 60% royalties on a the retail price of a single book while traditionally published authors usually make between 10%-12% royalties.