2014 was a big sales year for juvenile fiction. Publishers Weekly credits the Divergent novels and John Green for a good part of it. Unfortunately, print sales for kids’ fiction decreased by 3% in 2015. Apparently, the latest Wimpy Kid book was the only one to sell a million copies or more.
Although the category split out for juvenile fiction is far from perfect, a few insights can be gleaned. Harken back to what I wrote about predicting YA trends relating to the astrology of the up and coming generation (https://ellisnelsonbooks.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/can-ya-reading-trends-be-predicted/). Up 9% was a category called Holidays/Festivals/Religion. Is this the start of the Pluto in Sagittarius group taking an interest in spiritual and religious things? Maybe. Also notable was a 12% rise in purchases of animal fiction.
Social situations/Family/Health was down 10%. Small declines were also seen in SF/Fantasy/Magic (-2%) and History/Sports/People/Places (-4%).
Overall though, it’s hard to see emerging trends in the data when a bestseller in any category can really distort the picture. I would rather see the categories broken down and distributed by age group because picture book buying by adults is different than teens buying their own books. And this is only print sales. E-books are certainly playing an increasing role in sales for older kids. Even the decrease of 3% overall, needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Are e-books drawing off that amount or more? Is the decrease related to our overall flat economy?
Publishers Weekly Article: http://goo.gl/SoiKEu
ELLIS NELSON BOOKS 
I’ve been interested in writing a Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Middle Grade book based on a short story that I had published for a long time now. What’s holding me back, is I’ve never figured out how to promote the eBook.
Hopefully by the time I get around to it, kids will be reading eBooks more. But the problem will still remain, how to successfully promote it.
LikeLike
Exactly. I’m rethinking a MG I had planned and wondering if I can make it older. It’s tough enough to try to reach a YA audience and MG (especially in e-form) is next to impossible.
LikeLike