Gross sales of science fiction and fantasy books rocketed final yr, with their worth rising by 41.3% between 2023 and 2024.
The booming recognition of romantasy – the subgenre mixing components of fantasy and romance that may be a favorite of TikTok’s BookTok neighborhood – helped drive the rise.
UK readers picked up extra fiction in 2024 than 2023, with a 6.2% improve in gross sales quantity to 64,511,922 models, equating to a document £552.7m, in keeping with commerce journal The Bookseller.
In the meantime, gross sales of nonfiction books – excluding educational {and professional} specialist titles – decreased 6.3% in quantity throughout the 2 years, promoting 58,138,223 models. This amounted to £724.1m, the bottom determine seen for six years.
Total, gross sales quantity of fiction and nonfiction for adults confirmed a marginal decline of 0.1% between 2023 and 2024.
The main writer behind the romantasy increase is Rebecca Yarros, who was the bestseller within the science fiction and fantasy area in 2024. Her novel Fourth Wing was the seventh bestselling e book within the UK throughout all genres final yr, at 245,217 models.
Together with romantasy, different genres which have benefited from traction on-line embrace romance and erotic fiction, which noticed gross sales worth will increase of 9.8% and 18.1% respectively final yr.
Nevertheless, the romance pattern could also be partly because of altering attitudes in the direction of the style: publishers are maybe extra prone to classify books as romance reasonably than common or literary fiction in current instances, as a result of romance is now given extra prominence in bookstores, notes The Bookseller’s Tom Tivnan.
The 2 bestselling classes in grownup fiction – common and literary fiction, and crime, thriller and journey – had their finest performances for the reason that early 2010s. Struggle fiction noticed a lower of 18.3% in gross sales worth.
The hit to nonfiction was partly pushed by autobiography gross sales worth shrinking by 21%. Movie star books – together with these by Cher, Michael Caine and Alison Steadman – underperformed, whereas royal autobiographies sank 97.2% after the success of Prince Harry’s Spare in 2023.
Nevertheless, political autobiographies carried out effectively, with Boris Johnson’s Unleashed promoting £2.4m value of copies, and Alexei Navalny’s posthumous memoir Patriot with £764,000.
The highest-selling nonfiction class was foods and drinks, with the well being, weight-reduction plan and wholefood cookery class in fifth place, the latter having elevated 23.1% in gross sales quantity. Three air fryer and gradual cooker books, together with Pinch of Nom Air Fryer by Kay and Kate Allinson, made it into the highest 10 bestselling books of the yr.
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Gross sales of widespread psychology and self enchancment books fell, with declines of 6.1% and 21.1% in gross sales worth respectively. In the meantime, poetry and puzzles noticed document years. Scottish poet Donna Ashworth, who rose to prominence on social media combining poetry and self assist, was the top-selling residing poet with nearly £827,000 of gross sales, whereas Homer bought £871,000, a lot of which got here from Emily Wilson’s translations.
Like nonfiction, youngsters’s e book gross sales additionally took successful final yr, with a 3.3% lower in quantity to 66,687,401 models.
Richard Osman’s We Remedy Murders was the top-selling e book throughout all genres final yr, shifting almost half one million copies, with one other Osman, The Final Satan to Die, coming in second place. Romance e book It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover got here in third.
Booker winner Samatha Harvey was eleventh general, promoting 212,618 copies, whereas Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo was 14th, promoting 161,726. You Are Right here by David Nicholls additionally made it into the highest 20, at 115,996 gross sales.
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