Children's book sales hold up
Children's publishers who gathered at this year's Bookseller Children's Conference were upbeat. While the total publishing market has seen a 6% decline in sales so far this year, the children's market continues to defy the recession and even saw a slight rise in sales.
Total sales for printed books to the middle of August this year were £790m, down some 15% on five years ago and 6% down from 2011.
Children's sales, by contrast, are up year on year although by a slim 0.2%. To August this year, children's sales were valued at £169m.
Within that are some real success stories. Julia Donaldson's sales so far this year have reached £6m while Suzanne Collins' sales for the Hunger Games series are over £9.6m. War Horse has also sold more than 300,000 copies this year, also on the back of a film, and a debut series for 6+ girls, Secret Kingdom, has sold 44,000 copies - not bad for a debut.
Dystopian books have overtaken dark romance as the leading genre for teen readers, with the top 15 dystopian book sales valued at £12m, although the top 10 dark romance books have sold £3.3m, so that genre is staying healthy.
Among this year's bestselling authors, apart from Susanne Collins' 9.6m and Julia Donaldon's £6m, are David Walliams with £2.5m, Jeff Kinney with £4m, Jacqueline Wilson with £3.4m, Michael Morpurgo with £3.4m, and Roald Dahl with £2m sales this year.
However, it's worth remembering that most children's authors' income remain very modest and nowhere near these figures.
