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In times of crisis, books can be the perfect means of both education and escape.
And roughly six weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., the book industry has seen shoppers stockpiling children’s academic workbooks and study aids; adult tomes on outdoor survival skills and medical history; as well as literary classics like “The Great Gatsby” and “Love in the Time of Cholera” as people prepare to shelter in place and home-school their kids through the summer, and possibly into the fall. What’s more, the U.K. Reading Agency reports that 31% of Brits are reading more since the COVID-19 lockdown began, including a “particular spike” among readers ages 18 to 24.
Overall, U.S. book market sales were up 14% week-over-week for the week ending April 11, according to NPD BookScan’s latest report ahead of World Book Day on Thursday. And online book sales skyrocketed 777% in the first half of April, compared with the first half of March before stay-at-home orders were issued, according to Rakuten Intelligence.
Book sales have been driven by juvenile nonfiction in particular, which are up 25% year-to-date, and up 65% for the six weeks ending April 11, according to NPD BookScan. “With more schools closing temporarily due to COVID-19, and with many parents now working from home, we are definitely seeing an uptick in kids’ educational and activity book sales this week,” Kristen McLean, books industry analyst for NPD, wrote in her report.
Indeed, the overall No. 1 bestselling book on Amazon AMZN, +1.52% on Thursday was the “My First Learn to Write Workbook,” which is beating out Delia Owens’ “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which was the bestselling print book of 2019, as well as Celeste Ng’s “Little Fires Everywhere,” which was adapted into a Hulu original series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.
“We’ve seen people buying a massive concentration of home learning and kids books — and as a parent myself, I can see why,” Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt told MarketWatch. “You’ve got them at home, and even with the online schooling, kids are going to nonetheless have a lot of time on their hands. So parents are really stocking up on those.”
Among adults, however, survival and homemaking book sales are on the rise as Americans teach themselves to be more self-sufficient. Jim Milliot, the editorial director of Publishers Weekly, told MarketWatch that since March 1, books about outdoor survival skills are up 74%, and books about medical history (including those about the 1918 flu pandemic) are up 71%. “Home and gardening have also done pretty well, but nonfiction travel books are way down, as you would imagine” he said.
He also highlighted HGTV “Fixer Upper” star Joanna Gaines as being one of the biggest booksellers of the moment with her glossy cookbook, “Magnolia Table, Vol. 2: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering.”
“I think, going forward, people are going to be buying books that are closer to home and hearth, and keeping the kids busy,” Milliot added.
And since Audible launched its Audible Stories service in March, which includes hundreds of free family-friendly audiobooks ranging from “Stone Soup” and “Winnie the Pooh” to “The Call of the Wild,” a rep told MarketWatch that millions of daily visitors have taken advantage of the gratis story time.
People have been reaching for crafting and DIY books, as well, with Publishers Weekly noting that quilting and sewing books, doodling and coloring books were also seeing strong sales over the past month as folks look for ways to entertain themselves inexpensively during a challenging time, which is similar to what was seen during the 2008 financial crisis.
Plenty of people also want to escape reality and live in another character’s shoes. Daunt, who also runs Waterstones — the U.K. equivalent of Barnes & Noble — has also seen modern and historical literary classics capturing imaginations once again. Waterstones recently reported online sales rising 400% week-over-week, with a “significant uplift” for iconic novels like Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” F Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” — and “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel García Márquez, of course. Even bestselling authors like Stephen King are dusting off the classics, with the horror writer revealing on Twitter TWTR, -2.03% last month that he “finally got around” to reading “Ulysses” by James Joyce.
The NPD BookScan report noted that books are “an important resource” in times of crisis. During the 2008 downturn, “book sales grew every year between 2007-2011 except for 2009, including 2010 when unemployment hit its peak.”
What’s more, the number of people planning to give their moms a book for Mother’s Day this year has jumped 22% over last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
But it’s not all sunshine for the publishing industry. The mass closures of bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble, as well as independent bookstores and libraries, means it can also be harder to promote book sales and to actually get physical books into people’s hands. And Amazon AMZN, +1.52%, which counts for as much as 50% of U.S. book sales, has also de-prioritized delivering books in order to focus on shipping essential household items and medical supplies, which means some potential shoppers may ditch their online shopping carts if they see the book that they want won’t be able to ship for a week or more.
“The positive is that people are reading more. They’ve got time,” said Daunt. “And online sales are doing pretty well — but physical bookstores have lost 80% to 90% of their sales. And online sales will never substitute the sheer volume of sales from 627 very large and busy bookstores.”
