Australian book market overview: 2022 so far

The Australian book market posted strong results throughout the Covid-affected years of 2020 and 2021, and has continued this growth in 2022, with overall sales for the year to 18 June up 4.1% year-to-year, for a total of A$544 million. Coming after two years of consecutive growth in 2020 (up 7.8%) and 2021 (up 2.5%), it shows that the market is trading well above the last pre-Covid year of 2019.

This year’s growth is driven by strong performing titles in the adult fiction, children’s, young adult and educational categories. Romance sales had a huge jump (77%) due in large part to Colleen Hoover titles, and the growth in the romance category generally, heavily driven by TikTok trends. It’s worth noting that while TikTok has been a positive development for sales overall, contemporary romance author Sally Thorne is the only major Australian success story on the platform. The children’s comic strip fiction & graphic novels category received a boost from sales of Alice Oseman’s ‘Heartstopper’ series following the Netflix adaptation in May. Overall, adult fiction is up 17.3% on the same time last year, manga is up 27% and literary fiction is up 12%.

The bestselling Australian title for the year to 18 June was the children’s picture book Bluey: Easter. Bluey—a cartoon dog from the Australian TV show of the same name—has been a fixture of the Australian bestseller charts for a few years now, with regular instalments to feed demand. In fact, Bluey titles fill four spots on the Australian-authored books bestseller charts for the year to date, as well as another two on the 2021 end of year Australian charts. (more…)

Originally published by Books and Publishing (Read More)