In the past, BNC has turned its eye to researching books made into movies, J.K Rowling vs. Stephenie Meyer, and award-nominated titles, but this summer we decided to look at a trend in Canadian publishing that cannot be ignored: the sometimes-phenomenal, sometimes-underrated, but overall continued success of Juvenile and YA book series. Our findings have been compiled in Series Success: Studying the Sales Patterns of Juvenile and Young Adult Fiction Series, which is available to SalesData subscribers now (see access instructions below). Don’t worry: if you’re not a SalesData subscriber, refer to the instructions below to access a simplified version of the study without SalesData figures.
As with our other research reports, BNC noticed a trend in data, saw a correlation through book news and media, and decided to look further to find possible patterns.
Our new study looks at eight recent series for young adults and children, and answers the following questions:
When do series gain most of their audience/fans?
Which formats do well?
When does interest for a series increase/wane?
Which titles in a series sell the best, and at what time? Why?
How do backlist titles in a series sell during the release of the newest title?
What similarities can be found across these series?
How might series behave differently from one another? Why?
Some of the answers are quite surprising, and provide insight into how consumers respond to books in a series and when they buy the most. We looked at unit sales of each title over their first thirteen weeks on the market, as well as on hand numbers, and took into account special releases, the Christmas spike, and external events that may affect the sales patterns of each new release in a series.
This study includes analysis of the likes of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy as well as Kelley Armstrong’s
Darkest Powers series, and children’s books like Melanie Watt’s Chester series.
BNC SalesData users can access the report by logging into SalesData and following the instructions on the homepage below the download link for the most recent Monthly Report.
Not a SalesData subscriber? Just a curious bookworm? To view the non-subscriber versions of this report and others, sign up for BNC eNews. Instructions on how to access BNC Research studies are mailed out with each week’s eNews, on Mondays.
