Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: graphic novel, publisher's weekly

Adult Graphic Novel Sales In Bookstores Down 22.4% In 2023

Jim Milliot reports for Publishers Weekly "helped by a 1.7% increase in the fourth quarter, unit sales of print books fell only 2.6% in 2023"

Published Mon, 08 Jan 2024 07:57:08 -0600

by Rich Johnston

Comments

Article Summary

Print book sales saw a minor fall of 2.6% in 2023, showing resilience in the market.
Graphic novel sales in adult fiction plummeted by 22.4% last year.
Children's titles by Dav Pilkey and Jeff Kinney soared in sales, with 'Dog Man' leading.
Despite recent drops, book sales in 2023 were still up 10% from the pre-pandemic year 2019.

Jim Milliot reports for Publishers Weekly that "helped by a 1.7% increase in the fourth quarter, unit sales of print books fell only 2.6% in 2023 from 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. The dip was less than many industry members had feared this summer, when sales were steadily declining and were down 4.1% after the first nine months of the year."

Adult Graphic Novel Sales In Bookstores Down 22.4% In 2023 — Photo by morebyless CC BY 2.0 DEED

When it comes to graphic novels, however, there are mixed signals. "Dav Pilkey's Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea was the top seller in juvenile fiction, selling almost 1.1 million copies, while Jeff Kinney's newest Wimpy Kid title, No Brainer, sold more than 515,000 copies."

But within the adult fiction category, "graphic novel sales had the biggest decline, down 22.4%, but was still the third largest subcategory within adult fiction." This may also be due to a switch from graphic novel publishers in the USA away from adult fiction towards children, middle-grade and YA graphic novels, such as Dog Man, Investi-Gators, and the works of Raina Telgemeier.

Overall, PW stated that "Despite the 2023 sales drop of 2.6% and the more pronounced decline of 6.5% between 2021 and 2022, print unit sales in 2023 were still 10% ahead of the last prepandemic year in 2019. During 2023, most publishers took painful steps to address the overstaffing they engaged in to meet the higher sales of 2020–2022, and with the inflation-induced higher costs moderating in recent months it is hoped that the long sought-after new normal may finally settle in in 2024."

The expansion of children's graphic novels is fuelling all manner of publishers extending into the comics medium. It is not for nothing that kids' graphic novels in bookstores are being referred to as the newsstand of the twenty-first century. But maybe that's not continuing to extend to adults as much as some might have hoped by now.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!