The children’s book market grew by a modest 0.7% last year.
The YA sector declined 22% – “The main reason the category has declined so much is because 2017 had a lot of TV and film adaptations helping to drive sales, like Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything (Corgi) and Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why”
Non-fiction saved the day, up by an impressive 31%, thanks to titles such as Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls and, I would add, some lovely books from the likes of Wide Eyed and Wren&Rook…
The children’s market has shown overall growth of 0.7% by value, driven by children’s nonfiction sales, which were up 10.2%. In the nonfiction category, sales of books categorised as ‘general nonfiction’ increased by 31% compared to the same time last year, with Bookseller charts and data editor Kiera O’Brien attributing this growth to the success of 2017’s Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls (Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo, Particular Books). According to O’Brien, the rise in popularity of similar general nonfiction titles such as Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different (Ben Brooks & Quinton Winter, Quercus), which sold 48,738 copies, and You Are Awesome (Matthew Syed, Wren & Rook), which sold 68,752 copies, is ‘unmistakable’.In fiction, picture books experienced their fifth consecutive year of value growth, increasing by 2% on last year, while children’s fiction sales were steady, with 0.05% growth. YA sales were down in 2018, reporting a decrease of 22%. ‘The main reason the category has declined so much is because 2017 had a lot of TV and film adaptations helping to drive sales, like Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything (Corgi) and Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why (Puffin),’ said O’Brien.
