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Which Book Genres Produce the Most Revenue?

When is the last time you picked up a book? Yesterday? Today? A month ago? Maybe you're trying to come up with the last time you picked up a book. Some people might say that with all the other sources of entertainment in our world today, the amount of people reading has gone downhill. That would make perfect sense. After all, life is busy. Who has the time to read for leisure these days anyway? But fortunately, this is false. Books, both electronic and physical copies, are more popular now than ever. This is great news for the publishing industry. But you may be wondering, what is it that keeps the publishing industry alive? Over the years, certain genres have become more popular than others. Therefore, writers hoping to make it big (or at least keep the lights on) need to know what's "in" so that they can survive in the publishing world. The question for these writers is: which genres make the most revenue? 

In the article “23 Gripping Book Industry Statistics [2023]: Facts About the US Book Industry” by Chris Kolmar, the U.S. book industry made $29.33 billion in revenue in 2021. This seems partially due to the pandemic, with people forced to spend more time isolated indoors with more time to read. 

Books on shelves and on a table.
According to Dimitrije Curcic in the article, “Fiction Books Sales Statistics,” as of 2022, 58.88% of all print book sales were fiction in the U.S. (Curcic). Partially due to the pandemic, fiction book sales have jumped from $317 million in 2019 to $347 million in 2020 and $407 million in 2021 (Curcic). Now to the juicy bit…how much revenue did fiction books rack up? 

According to Curcic, in 2021, the trade book segment produced $10.3 billion, in which 53.38% of trade book revenue came from fiction books (Curcic). Within the fiction category, the three most popular genres are: 
  1. Romance: $1.44 billion in sales revenue; 
  2. YA fantasy: one of the fastest-growing genres (includes one of the highest grossing books series of all time, Harry Potter); 
  3. Thriller/mystery: over 23 million units sold per year and makes up 12.5% of adult print books (Curcic). 

Regarding which format of books sold is the most popular, Chris Kolmar in his article “23 Gripping Book Industry Statistics [2023]: Facts About the US Book Industry” shares:
  • Hardback = 49.15% 
  • Paperback = 27.27%
  • eBook = 9.29%
  • Audiobook = 6.29%
  • Other = 7.99% 
Looking toward the future of book publishing sales, eBooks are expected to see a small increase in use over physical units. But there will always be people (i.e. me) who prefer a physical copy with that new book smell and which gives you the need to build a bookshelf. 

Another interesting statistic of the future of this industry is self-publishing rather than traditional publishing is increasing, with 2.3 million self-published books being made in 2021 (Kolmar). According to Kolmar, “the growth rate of the book publishing industry is estimated to be -0.1% from 2022-2023” (Kolmar). 

Looking forward, we can expect this next year or so to remain stagnant as far as physical book sales, but digital publishing is only going up, with the expectation to grow at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2021 to 2028 (Kolmar). Overall, the book publishing industry is still on the up and up and it’s predicted to stay that way. 


Works Cited 

Curcic, Dimitrije. “Dimitrije Curcic.” WordsRated, 16 Feb. 2023, https://wordsrated.com/fiction-books-sales/. 

Kolmar, Chris. “23 Gripping Book Industry Statistics [2023]: Facts about the US Book Industry.” Zippia 23 Gripping Book Industry Statistics 2023 Facts About the US Book Industry Comments, 17 Aug. 2022, https://www.zippia.com/advice/us-book-industry-statistics/.

*Photo: https://publishingperspectives.com/2018/07/us-statshot-publisher-survey-2017-estimates-revenue/


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