3 Things to Know About Getting a Book Deal in 2021

1. Adult nonfiction is the biggest segment of the entire book buying market. A whopping 40% of all books sold around the world (and online) are true stories and advice marketed to and written for adults. In 2020 alone, over 309 million individual nonfiction books were sold, presumably to adults like you and me.
2. The sales of “backlist” books — anything published more than a year ago — are growing fast and actually outsold the frontlist (new books) in 2020. Publishers Lunch, a leading industry newsletter I got these stats from, attributes this to books being available for years and years after publication online. (In contrast, bookstores tend to prioritize the frontlist and only stock bestselling backlist titles.) This is mostly good news, though I would see this as another reason to be wary of self-publishing too soon. If your book is published online and it fails to sell, that failure is pretty permanent. (And obvious to everyone in traditional publishing.)
3. Hitting the bestseller list isn’t quite the sign of success it used to be. The top ten best-selling books of 2020 sold approximately 200,000 less print copies overall last year compared to the top ten best-selling books of 2018. This indicates that because customers are flocking online (to Bookshop.org and Amazon) to buy books, there’s a slightly more even playing field for books by lesser known authors to get discovered and bought. While this is mostly good news for you and me and every single one of my clients, I would be curious to see how this changes in 2021 when *hopefully* people will get vaccinated and shop in bookstores again.

Now I want to hear from you: what do YOU want to know about the publishing industry?

— Meghan