In an age more dominated by technology than ever, heavy textbooks and boxed set collections of Harry Potter can easily be replaced by tablets. So begs the question: are printed books facing extinction? Not according to Publisher’s Weekly and The Author’s Guild. In 2021, physical book sales went up 9.1% from the year before. Over the year, fiction exploded, increasing in both the adult and young adult sections (25.5% and 30.7%, respectively). With titles like Atomic Habits, It Ends with Us, and The Four Winds released over the course of the year, 2021 was ripe with incredible titles published. Research during the year showed that the percent of Americans that didn’t read any books stayed the same, remaining a fairly low 17%.
There is some contention with the continuation of reading printed books though. Worker shortages in the warehouse industry became a massive issue during the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes the warehouses that produce and distribute books to Americans. Additionally, paper mills have been opting to switch their energy away from book grade papers to “more profitable types of paper products.” As a result, the paper mills that aren’t closing due to worker shortages just aren’t producing the kind of paper that publishers print your favorite novels onto.
Throughout all this struggle though, books aren’t going anywhere, according to the Book Manufacturers Institute, who expect roughly 81% of commercial printers to remain steady or continue to grow over the coming two years. Despite the convenience and accessibility of e-books and audiobooks, the charm of cracking open a book that you can hold in your own hands isn’t at risk. Librarians, authors, and avid readers, rejoice.
