Notebook: Readers and Writers Finding Each Other

by Ann Kjellberg, editor

Sales of print books fell by 2.6 percent in 2023, less than expected. Publishers have been anticipating that the pandemic swell in book sales, which peaked in 2021, would subside, and the sale of books is still hovering 10 percent above 2019 levels, outperforming general merchandise. Did being stuck at home remind everyone how much they love to read? Are some changes in technology actually benefitting books? Is a younger generation of readers stepping in to redress generational declines in reading? (See my out-of-the-box theory that student-directing reading instruction and classroom libraries have been good for reading.) One set of indicators: adult hardcover nonfiction, which only five years ago was the salvation of the industry, far outpacing what was then seen as a moribund market for fiction, fell 3.1 percent in 2023, after falling 10.3 percent in 2022, buoyed last year by Prince Harry and Britney Spears. What really kept 2023 going for books were boom times for fiction, led by romance and “romantasy” authors who got their start in self-publishing and made their mark on TikTok. Publishing observer Jane Friedman wrote a year ago that “the romance market was the leading growth category and drove overall gains in the adult fiction market” and “recently, romance surpassed the more general, catch-all category of ‘literature and fiction’ to become the highest-selling category in the Kindle store,” where, under the auspices of Amazon, most self-publishing goes on. Romance was once a rare sight in a bookstore; five hundred bookstores participated in 2023’s “Bookstore Romance Day” last August, and at least fifteen new romance-only bookstores have opened in the last five years in the US.

Coming soon! John Banville, Sarah Ruden, Brian Fagan. Subscribe!