Paperback paradox: volume falls as value rises
SEP 18, 2025BY ALEX CALL
Freida McFadden © Mira Whiting
Bookshops across the country might be starting to rejig their displays in an effort to make room for publishers’ switch of focus to hardbacks, but we should pause before then to say goodbye to summer properly by taking a look at the paperbacks that kept UK readers company on their travels.
According to data from NielsenIQ BookData’s Total Consumer Market (TCM), nearly 14.5 million paperbacks were sold in the 13 weeks to 30th August – a fall of 4.9% compared with 2024’s summer, when 15.2 million paperbacks were packed in suitcases alongside swimming trunks and suncream.
That number is a little alarming at first, but it is only a little worse than the full TCM, which saw a volume decline of 4.5% over the same period. Where it does differ though, is in terms of value. £110.9m went through bookseller tills for paperbacks this summer, a rise of 1.8% compared with the year before, the equivalent of an extra £1.9m – the value figure in TCM fell 1.7% in the same period.
Compare that to the Children’s market, which has seen volume and value drops of 1.3% and 0.5% respectively in the same weeks and it is clear that the adult fiction market has proven to be a little more of a mixed (travel) bag. It is worth noting at this point that owing to a data-processing error, an article in the 5th September issue included incorrect figures on the children’s book market.
These extreme changes in volume and value have led to an extra 50p being added to the average selling price, which rests at £7.69, just 25.8% lower than the average RRP of £10.38. Incidentally, that average RRP is only 6p higher than the 2024 average, so neither the volume nor value changes can be attributed to the price printed on the back covers.
Nor is the increase in value coming from the Top 50 – this year the top slice of paperbacks brought in £18.2m, 4.7% down compared with the same period in 2024, roughly a £0.9m loss, across a unit decline of just under a quarter of a million, a third of the category’s decline.
There are five authors whose books earned more than £1m this summer – the same five authors who achieved the feat in 2024, but in a slight change to the line-up it is Freida McFadden who takes the headline slot with sales of £3.2m, up 42.8% compared with last year. Perhaps an unsurprising twist, since eight of the Top 50 belong to the psychological thriller writer.
After achieving first place in 2024 with sales of £3m, Colleen Hoover is relegated to fifth place as sales drop £1.8m – allowing both Claire Douglas and Richard Osman to move up a single place in the rankings, but both with increased sales. Sarah J Maas retains second place with a slight rise in sales.
The next tranche of authors on the list – such as Bob Mortimer, David Nicholls and Sally Rooney – all benefit from big year-on-year increases thanks to not having had a new release in 2024, while Chloe Walsh benefits from a new release and a surge on TikTok to increase sales by 128.2% and take sixth place.
At a sub-category level, most of the big areas have seen rises in value sales, with only Romance & Sagas falling – a 19% drop, exacerbated in part by Hoover’s declining sales – and Crime, Thriller & Adventure remaining flat. The biggest winner is Historical & Mythological Fiction, which has seen its sales rise by 24.1% summer-on-summer, although three quarters of that comes from the Women’s Prize-winning The Safekeep – indie favourite Yael van der Wouden is the only author in the Top 10 to get there on the strength of one title alone, earning £901,678 in total.
