John Dean – Crime Writer

August 6 2025

Newly-published sales figures showed that the sale of print books dropped by 1.6%in the first half of 2025, compared to the same period a year ago.

The figures compiled from reports to Circana BookScan showed that sales from the six major print categories fell to 343.6 million in the first six months of 2025 from 347.5 million in the first half of 2024.

Adult fiction, the strongest category for several years, recorded a 1% rise in the first six months, on the back of sales of best-selling titles such as the year’s best-seller Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, which sold two million copies.

Adult non-fiction sales fell 3.1% in the first half of the year despite the success of titles including The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, which sold more than 1.7 million copies.

The biography/autobiography/memoir category had the biggest decline in adult non-fiction, down 10.7%, and general non-fiction sales were down 9.9%.

Among other catehories, Young Adult fiction sales were up 0.1% and Young Adult non-fiction was up 2.9%.

The full breakdown of the figures can be read on  https://www.publishersweekly.com/