Last year, the print book market in Australia decreased in both volume and value from 2023, with volume sales across all formats equating to 68.9m (-1%), and value sales shrinking 3% to $1.29bn (from $1.33bn). The average price Australian book buyers paid for a book meanwhile fell by 2% to $18.70 . This marks the second year in a row that the Australian book market contracted, from record highs in 2022. However, 2024 was still up 14% in volume and 13% in value from five years previously.
In New Zealand, the print book market decreased in volume sales by 3% to 5.9m, shrinking in value terms 7% to $130.8m, and ASP shrinking 4% to $22.09. In contrast to Australia, 2024 marked the weakest performance in some time, including against that of 2019. However, there were some promising genre performances in both markets, as well as some fantastic results from home-grown talents in their respective markets, as we shall see.
Fiction was the strongest performer out of the broad categories in terms of growth in both Australia and New Zealand, broadly reflecting the trend of most of the territories that we measure and strong Fiction performances broadly mitigating the more muted performances of Non-Fiction and Children’s. In the case of Australia, Fiction rose 5% in volume sales and 7% in value, whilst in New Zealand Fiction rose 1% in volume sales and fell only marginally in value sales (- 1%). Whilst General and Literary Fiction is the largest genre within Fiction in both Australia and New Zealand, followed by Crime Fiction, Sci-Fi & Fantasy was the biggest winner in terms of growth. This genre was a significant driver in strong Fiction sales in both markets overall, and around the world. Other genres that performed well in both territories included the smaller categories of War Fiction as well as Short Stories Fiction & Anthologies, whilst other categories’ performances diverged between the two markets, e.g.: whereas Romance & Sagas grew in volume sales in Australia, the genre remained steady in New Zealand, and whilst Historical Fiction and Mythologies shrank in Australia, it experienced significant growth in New Zealand.
The top Fiction titles for Australia in 2024 were: Here One Moment by Australian novelist Liane Moriarty, followed by TikTok-fuelled Romantasy favourites A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas and the second in the smash-hit Empyrean series from Rebecca Yarros: Iron Flame, followed by familiar TikTok favourite It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, whilst The Housemaid by Freida McFadden took the number five fiction spot. BookTok had less of a marked footprint in the Fiction bestseller chart in New Zealand, where perennial favourite Lee Child was number one with In Too Deep, which was written alongside Andrew Child. The latest Jack Reacher novel also took the coveted Christmas number one spot as well as the number one spot overall. The final instalment of the Sisters series, The Hidden Girl, by Lucinda Riley and completed by Harry Whittaker, took the number two spot, and that was followed by The Women by Kirsten Hannah at number three, My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes at number four, and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros rounding out the New Zealand Fiction top five.
Whilst the Non-Fiction sector in Australia dipped in terms of performance on the previous year, shrinking 7% in volume and 10% value, it is worth noting that this sector remains the largest in value terms overall, taking up 39% of the market share. Furthermore, the top two bestselling titles overall in Australia were Non-Fiction: number one being RecipeTin Eats: Tonight by Nagi Maehashi, and number two overall being Maehashi’s previous title, RecipeTin Eats: Dinner. The former became the fastest-selling Non-Fiction title in Australia since records began after its publication in October and went on to become Australia’s Christmas number one for 2024. With Maehashi taking up the top two spots in the Non-Fiction chart, spots three, four and five in that chart were taken by Atomic Habits by James Clear, The Voice Inside, the biography from John Farnham, and Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson respectively. It likely comes as no surprise therefore that Food & Drink was one of the top-performing categories in Australia in 2024 and is the largest category within Non-Fiction overall. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the largest Non-Fiction category is Biographies, whilst Food and Drink was the second largest.
The New Zealand Non-Fiction sector shrank 9% in volume and 12% in value. However, in value terms it still took 41% of the market share and is demonstrably still a lucrative area of the market. Tasty from the New Zealand-born celebrity chef Chelsea Winter took the number two spot in the overall bestseller chart for New Zealand and was the bestselling Non-Fiction title. The Last Secret Agent by Phyllis Latour and Jude Dobson was the second bestselling Non-Fiction title, followed by View from the Second Row, the biography from All Blacks legend Samuel Whitelock, whilst Nagi Maehashi’s Tonight and Dinner rounded out this top five. Whilst Biographies was the largest Non-Fiction category in New Zealand, and is well-represented in the bestseller chart, the category did shrink in both New Zealand and Australia off the back of a strong 2023.
Whilst the Children’s sector shrank 2% in volume and 4% in value in both markets in 2024, Children’s books accounted for nearly half (47%) of the volume sales in New Zealand, and for 45% of volume sales in Australia. Nevertheless, only one of the top ten titles fell within Children’s in each overall chart, which was Dog Man (12): The Scarlett Shedder by Dav Pilkey in both cases. After the latest Dog Man, the rest of the top five Children’s books in Australia were: Powerless by Lauren Roberts, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (19): Hot Mess by Jeff Kinney, If He Had Been with Me, by Laura Nowlin, Reckless by Lauren Roberts and If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin. In New Zealand it was Diary of a Wimpy Kid (19): Hot Mess by Jeff Kinney at number two, followed by Dog Man: Big Jim Begins by Dav Pilkey, Powerless by Lauren Roberts, and Super Sleuth by David Walliams. Children’s Comic Strips & Graphic Novels had a strong 2024 in both territories, as was reflected in the charts, and other genres within Children’s that performed well in 2024 included Children’s Annuals and Children’s & Young Adults Non-Fiction.
Overall, despite the volume and value sales in the book markets of Australia and New Zealand falling slightly from the previous year, falling ASPs can be only something of a relief to the book-buying public in challenging economic times. It is also encouraging to see strong representation of Australian and New Zealand authors on the bestseller charts, and this nurturing and supporting of home-grown talent indicates a bright future for both markets.
Based on data from the Australian Book Market (ABM) and the New Zealand Book Market (NZBM), to 28 December 2024.
