Children’s book market up 0.7% by value in 2018

The children’s book market has shown steady growth of 0.7% to mid-August 2018 but some of the biggest increases were from non-fiction categories, charts and data editor Kiera O’Brien revealed at The Bookseller Children’s Conference this morning (Monday 24th September).

The overall children’s book market increased 0.7% for the period ending 18th August, compared to the same period in 2017, but non-fiction sales were up 10.2%.

Non-fiction sales were boosted mainly by what Nielsen categorises as ‘general non-fiction’, which was up 31% to £10.4m and the biggest seller in this sector was You Are Awesome by Matthew Syed (Wren & Rook), selling 68,752 copies, followed by Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different by Ben Brooks and Quinton Winter (Quercus, 48,738 copies).

O’Brien attributed the boost to this sector to the Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli's Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (Particular Books), which was a huge publishing success story in 2017. 

“Though Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls and its sequel are not coded as children’s titles, and have had no effect on the growth of the kids’ non-fiction category, the rise in similar titles—that have been coded in the children’s category—is unmistakable,” she said. 

The school textbooks and study guides category also showed growth, as sales were up 3.8% to £31.8m, and YA general interest and leisure increased 55% thanks to the two Harry Potter spin-offs published by the British Library. The History of Magic titles have earned more than £350,000 combined this year, despite the exhibition finishing in February, said O’Brien. 

In fiction, the picture book market experienced its fifth rise in year-on-year value, growing 2% to £32m. The World Book Day title Oi Goat! by Kes Gray and Jim Field (Hodder Children’s Books) was the biggest seller, shifting 159,672 copies, followed by another World Book Day book, My Book About Me by Adam Hargreaves and Roger Hargreaves (Egmont, 106,810 copies).

Novelty and activity books grew 3.8% to £28m but the children’s and YA fiction market was down 4.7% because of the decline in YA sales. Sales of children’s fiction were steady, showing 0.05% growth to £61.8m, but YA fell 22% to £13.8m. 

“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 and Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why,” said O’Brien. “This year, US debut titles dominate."

The biggest selling author of the year so far is David Walliams. Although his sales are down 1% in value, he sold 1.3 million books, earning £7.8m through Nielsen BookScan. 

Walliams also dominates the market for books written by celebrities. “Though celebrity authors have sold two million fiction books for £10m in 2018 so far, David Walliams titles account for a whopping 65% of that in volume terms, and 78% in value,” said O’Brien. 

Julia Donaldson titles sold £5.7m though Nielsen BookScan and her volume continues to rise year on year, up 4.2% with last year’s World Book Day title Princess Mirror-Belle and Snow White stripped out.

“If the market continues to grow at this rate of 0.7%, 2018 will become the fifth consecutive record year in value terms,” said O’Brien.