Friday News: Book sales, book habits, book lists, and Black Friday deals
Soft July for Trade Sales – Not a huge surprise here, but more confirmation (in case you needed any) that publishers are likely still focused on big books that will drive sales. Also, physical books in both adult and children’s categories saw a decline in sales in July, 26.3% for mass market paperback and 41.7% for physical audio. Digital audio sales were up 21.6%. Also interesting to compare the first 7 months of sales in all categories for 2016 and 2017.
The plunge in children’s/ya sales was due to the release last July of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was a huge hit in 2016. The publication of Potter had the greatest impact on the children’s/ya hardcover format, where sales fell 61.1% in July compared to a year ago. E-book sales were down 16.0%. Despite the tough comparison caused by Potter, sales in the first seven months of 2017 in the children’s/ya category were only down 3.5%, compared to the same period in 2016. – Publishers Weekly
21 Things Book Lovers Feel Slightly Guilty About – Numbers 1 and 21 are my top guilt-inducing behaviors (hint: they have to do with buying books you don’t need). A lot of items on the list produce no guilt for me whatsoever. What about you? – Buzzfeed
Dealmaster: All the Black Friday tech deals we can find [Updated] – Ars Technica is updating this list throughout the day, so if you’re trying not to spend any money today, avoid it. Engadget has put together a list of UK tech deals.
Book lists and Black Friday Deals – For many of us, the holiday gift-buying giving season officially begins today, so here are some recommendations and deals. Please share any good resources you find, as well.
- These Black Friday Comic Book Sales Are Surprisingly Good – Hollywood Reporter
- 100 Notable Books of 2017 – New York Times
- The best Black Friday 2017 book deals – The Verge
- Holiday science book guide for 2017: Give them the cosmos for Christmas – How about Hanukkah and Kwanza? – Geek Wire
Ebooks solve all the storage-related problems, and buying almost exclusively on sale absolves me of overspending guilt. I never had book-abuse guilt because I’m that person who reads paperbacks opened juuuust enough to see to the gutter. I fail to see how anything else is problematic. My heart is pure and my conscience clear!
I don’t get 14, they can walk around me.
I admit I don’t quite understand why someone would want multiple copies of the same book, in the exact same format, but I fail to see why anyone should feel guilty over it. It’s their shelf space.
Honestly I don’t get any of them and am tired of articles trying to invent guilt/shame for me. Women get enough of that as it is.
That list is pretty amusing. I have many of those habits but it’s hard to feel more than very slightly guilty about most of them. Now, having so many books when some people can’t afford any for their children—that’s guilt-inducing.
Thank you for the Black Friday book deals list—I picked up a couple of print cookbooks from B&N for 20% off.
Used book merchant Biblio.com is having a Black Friday discount of 15% off your entire order, and it’s good until midnight tonight. The code is BFBIBLIO.
Ow. That NYtimes notable book article has a gif that made my eyes hurt.
Gentle warning for flashing colors in that article.