American Library Association
So exactly why is obscene, sexually explicit, strongly bigoted and strong themes of drug addition and abuse material being marketed on America’s children, specifically the secondary school ages 11+ ?
The American Library Association defines young adults as individuals between 12 and 18 years of age. “These years are developmentally challenging and the definition of “service” to this group may encompass everything from quality reference (homework) help to community collaboration.”
Young adult books have been the fastest-growing category over the last 5 years, with print unit sales jumping by 48.2% since 2018. This especially applies to YA nonfiction, which grew by 62.7% from 2018.
As of 2022, young adult books account for 4.58% of all book sales. This makes YA the smallest category within age groups, and also a big growth category over the next 5 years.
Young Adult Book Sales Statistics
January 30, 2023 by Dimitrije Curcic
- 35.03 million print copies of young adult (YA) books are sold each year as of 2022.
- Compared to 2021, this is a 0.74% decrease, dropping from 35.29 million copies sold.
- 30.91 million young adult books sold in 2022 were fiction books, while 4.11 million were nonfiction.
- Young adult books have been the fastest-growing category over the last 5 years, with print unit sales jumping by 48.2% since 2018.
- This especially applies to YA nonfiction, which grew by 62.7% from 2018.
- YA books benefited from the pandemic when sales grew by 24.7% in 2020 and 27.5% in 2021.
- As of 2022, young adult books account for 4.58% of all book sales. This makes YA the smallest category within age groups.
- However, young adult books are on the rise, and their share in total book sales increased from 3.43% in 2018, which is a 34% increase.
- Along with children’s books, the young adult segment is worth $11.34 billion globally as of 2022.
- This category is expected to grow by 3.5% annually and reach $13.02 billion in value in 5 years.
- YA book market is projected to grow faster than the rest of the categories over the next 5 years.
YA consumer structure
- Over half of the people (55%) who buy YA books don’t follow into the YA category but are over 18 years old.
- 51% of YA book buyers over 18 years of age are between 30 and 44 years old, accounting for 28% of all buyers.
- 78% of over-18 buyers are purchasing books with the intention of reading them themselves.
- Most of the over-18 YA book buyers purchased at least one of the books from the Hunger Games series, 30% of them.
- Only 2 other titles account for over 5% of total YA book sales, while the rest is divided between over 220 titles.
- Over 40% of YA consumers are reported to read ebooks, making them a group with the highest ebook purchasing rate across all genres, adults included.
- 71% of those who buy YA ebooks stated that they’d buy a printed copy if the ebook version is not available.
- 66% of YA readers state that enjoying the author’s previous books have a big influence on the next purchase.
The American Library Association has many divisions of sales. Below are the 3 guideline recommendations by the minor age groups.
Their ALSC recommendations seem appropriate on their chart. So, why are they not following it themselves? Perhaps, $$$$$$
- AASL offers guidelines and information about middle schools and high schools;
- ALSC offers booklists that may be useful for younger teens;
- PLA offers information about serving teens within the context of public libraries;
The American Library Association publishes books then markets them as award-winning banned books for purchase in secondary schools ages 11+
Great marketing strategy!
1. Create adult books with sexually explicit material | 2. Market to minors in the secondary schools | 3. Cry, “Banned Books” + “Censorship” | 4. Librarians buy more “Banned Books” | 5. Repeat !
Book Reviews: Online book reviews are much more accurate with their Young Adult reviews and cautions parents accordingly.
Follow The Money!
https://www.ala.org/aboutala/treasurerspage
