--- description: Book sales are booming, according to statistics released this week by the Association of American Publishers, which showed that in the first three-quarters of 2014,... title: Adult Books Sales Are Down and Young Adult Soars in 2014 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte055d57d1c56b614/69876f442dce0167eb9dc7ff/the-fault-in-our-stars.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Adult Books Sales Are Down and Young Adult Soars in 2014 by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 16, 2014 9:44 PM CUT  Dutton Books by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 16, 2014 9:44 PM CUT Book sales are booming, according to statistics released this week by the Association of American Publishers, which showed that in the first three-quarters of 2014, overall book sales increased by 4.9%. But the real page-turners that flew off the shelves were for children and young adults–those categories increased by a whopping 22.4% from Jan.-Sept. 2013 to the same period in 2014, [_Media Bistro_](http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/book-sales-up-4-9-in-first-34-of-2014-aap%5Fb95272 "undefined")reports. To put things into perspective, adult fiction and non-fiction sales were down 3.3%. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that adults stopped reading. They might just be expanding their palates to healthy servings of John Green and other YA heavy-hitters. Adults reading YA wouldn’t be a new phenomenon. According to a 2012 survey by [Bowker Market Research](http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/53937-new-study-55-of-ya-books-bought-by-adults.html "undefined") found that 55% of young adult novels are bought by adults — 28% of which are made up of the 33 to 44 demographic. That statistic drew some [criticism aimed at YA-loving adults](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/06/against%5Fya%5Fadults%5Fshould%5Fbe%5Fembarrassed%5Fto%5Fread%5Fchildren%5Fs%5Fbooks.html "undefined") this summer–balanced by an overwhelming [wave](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/fashion/a-not-so-young-audience-for-young-adult-books.html "undefined") of [pieces](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/06/06/no-you-do-not-have-to-be-ashamed-of-reading-young-adult-fiction/ "undefined") [defending](http://www.thefrisky.com/2014-06-05/adults-can-read-whatever-the-hell-they-want/ "undefined") [adults who love the genre](http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/thirtysomething-teen-on-young-adult-novels.html "undefined"). While the [AAP](http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/book-sales-up-4-9-in-first-34-of-2014-aap%5Fb95272 "undefined") didn’t track who bought what books, it did note that children and young adult ebooks increased a total of 52.7% in the first nine months this year. And a December study by [Nielsen](http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/dont-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-tech-savvy-teens-remain-fans-of-print-books.html "undefined") found that even though teenagers are tech savvy, only 20% of them buy ebooks and express a strong preference for print. Although no need to hide _The Fault of Our Stars_ in that Kindle — it’s no _50 Shades of Grey_, after all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3636601/young-adult-book-sales-2014/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3636601/young-adult-book-sales-2014/"},"headline":"Adult Books Sales Are Down and Young Adult Soars in 2014","datePublished":"2014-12-16T21:44:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:15:23.795Z","description":"Book sales are booming, according to statistics released this week by the Association of American Publishers, which showed that in the first three-quarters of 2014,...","url":"https://time.com/3636601/young-adult-book-sales-2014/","keywords":["Books","Newsfeed","Living","publishing","john green","young adult","novels"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte055d57d1c56b614/69876f442dce0167eb9dc7ff/the-fault-in-our-stars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte055d57d1c56b614/69876f442dce0167eb9dc7ff/the-fault-in-our-stars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Fault In Our Stars","caption":"The Fault In Our Stars","creditText":"Dutton Books","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3636601/young-adult-book-sales-2014/","name":"Adult Books Sales Are Down and Young Adult Soars in 2014"}}]}] ```