I have finally gotten a chance to really look at the year-end numbers for book sales in 2011 as published in last week’s Children’s Bookshelf article: Facts and Figures 2012. I’m fascinated by the frontlist and backlist breakdowns.
The hardcover frontlist is chock full of sequels, fantasies, and young adult books. The dearth of picture books really surprised me. Just under 20% of the list were picture books, but in the backlist hardcover list, picture books comprised almost 60% of the top 104 bestselling books of last year. I have been puzzling over what these numbers mean to my store and my customers.
Clearly, sequels were all the rage. Books that folks were already familiar with populated the list. Almost 66% of the frontlist hardcovers were from a series. This tells me two things, which are sort of opposite sides of the same coin. The first is that folks weren’t taking many chances and trying brand-new things, or conversely, they so loved the earlier books that the sequels were met with glee. I think the numbers reflect a combination of both. The sequels last year were big and hugely anticipated, but I’m still taken aback by their total dominance. I have no data to back this theory up, but I think the frontlist bestsellers represent teens and preteens buying their own books, or at least dictating what books to buy.
It seems to me that the backlist hardcovers are leaning much more towards classics, perhaps the nature of backlist. These strike me as gifts for babies and could be the basis of a young person’s library. Dr. Seuss books and those by Margaret Wise Brown, Shel Silverstein and Sandra Boynton were heavily represented. I couldn’t help but think: baby showers. This is great news for booksellers. A backlist bestseller list that is so heavily titled toward picture books means lots of new readers. I am heartened by these numbers. The fact that Goodnight Moon sold over 500,000 board books means half a million babies got a classic and got started on the road to loving books. It’s our job to keep that road populated with great books, new and old. And what a fun job it is.