Publisher's Weekly Releases Hot & Cold Categories

A coworker directed my attention to this article from Publisher's Weekly, about the "hot & cold" categories of 2014. It shows what print books people bought, broken down by genre.

A few notable stats:

• Adult Nonfiction was up slightly, by 1 percent, with big booms for self-help, religion/bibles, and biography/autobiography/memoirs. I've seen a lot of great nonfiction on the shelves of our library, so I'm not surprised to see the section get a boost.
• Adult Fiction was down by a decent chunk, by 8 percent. I am kind of hoping that this means that people are checking more things out from the library, rather than buying books, but I'm not sure that's the case. My gut tells me that e-books have taken a chunk from the print book market, and I'm not surprised - it's nice to be able to buy books at home in your pajamas and start reading them instantly!
• Graphic novels and Westerns grew in Adult Fiction! There is generally a strong core of Western readers, and I hope this means that they'll get more of their books to read. It's not a genre I've really read (yet) but in the film world, I keep seeing Westerns getting almost-going again. Maybe we're on the cusp of a revival. As for graphic novels, I love 'em, so I'm thrilled. It's really a diverse format that tells a lot of different stories, and it's getting more diverse, so between that and a lot of graphic novel-related movies and TV shows, I'm not surprised it's so popular.
• Down most in Adult Fiction are occult/psychological/horror (down 26 percent), religion (15 percent), and action/adventure (15 percent). I'm not super surprised by occult/horror/psychological or action/adventure, but religion (specifically Christian fiction) does well in my neck of the woods so I'm a little surprised it's taken a dive. I'll definitely be watching circulation in that category! 

I'm also really interested in what will be popular in the future, and for that, I like to keep a close eye on what the kids and teens are reading. While certainly reading styles shift over time - I wasn't reading romance five years ago, much less in high school, for example - people don't just change everything they read when they turn 18. Books bought for children and teens was up by a good chunk (16 percent for nonfiction and 12 percent for fiction), which thrills me anyway, and look at how much science fiction/fantasy/magic grew - by 38 percent. PW notes that the section is "home to such 2014 blockbusters as the Divergent trilogy, the Frozen franchise, and the novels of James Dashner and Rick Riordan," but these popular series and franchises are getting kids (and adults) interested in speculative fiction. I wouldn't be surprised if these grow in popularity in the next ten years because of these popular series.

Of course, all of these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. There could have been particularly good or particularly bad years in any of these genres, and without the numbers from the last few years, it's impossible to declare a trend. But it is definitely worth keeping an eye on these types of figures and seeing where the publishing industry may be going next ... and it's another insight into what readers are looking for!