U.S. book publishing industry - statistics & facts

Sales figures and publishing powerhouses

The U.S. book publishing industry is dominated by a handful of publishing houses often referred to as the “Big Five”: Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan. These players distributed between 77 and 91 percent of the bestselling hardcover and paperback titles in the U.S. in 2021. That year, the global revenue of Penguin Random House - the leading publisher in the U.S. - rose to 3.8 billion euros. Considering that the book behemoth is planning to buy Simon & Schuster, its imprint on the publishing landscape will likely expand in the future. But which formats yield the largest profits? Data shows that hardback and paperback books account for the lion’s share of book sales revenues in the United States. In 2021, hardback copies generated approximately 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in sales, whereas paperback and mass-market books brought in 3.34 billion U.S dollars, respectively.

Consumer behavior and bestsellers

The mean annual expenditure on books has visibly decreased since the early 2000s. According to the latest available data, households spent less than 30 U.S. dollars on book purchases annually since 2015. In contrast, average spending used to be nearly twice as high only a decade earlier. Looking at consumer behavior amid COVID, it comes as no surprise that investments in reading-related activities saw a rapid uptick. People from all age groups turned to books for entertainment as they isolated at home, dusting off old copies or purchasing new ones online. So, what have readers been reaching for recently? Adult nonfiction has been the most popular book category based on unit sales for many years, whereas young adult fiction saw the largest jump in sales in 2021. A closer look at genres reveals that in 2022, some of the best-selling books in the U.S. included children’s classics by Dr. Seuss, manga volumes, self-help books, and thrillers. Several books that ranked on the top-seller list shot to fame thanks to TikTok, where authors like Colleen Hoover have amassed an impressive fanbase.

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