The not-so-terrible twos: Backlist sales bumps

November 4, 2021

All year we’ve been digging deep on the backlist. In May, we established that the anecdata we’d been hearing across the industry was true — sales of backlist titles were up in 2020 compared to previous years.

In October, we took a look at backlist title performance in both the All Markets and Independent stores, and established a similar trend, with 28% of books sold in both markets being in that 2-5 years old pub date range.

Total unit sales by pub date age, 2021 (year to date)

A bar graph showing the retail sales of titles in 2021 year-to-date, broken into pub date age range, for the independent bookstores and the All Markets. At independent stores and the All Markets books that are 2-5 years sell the most at 28%.

So it’s firmly established — 2-5 years old is a sweet spot for backlist sales. But within that band, which titles do best? When’s the best time in a book’s life to reposition it to the market and pick up some new sales? We’re using data pulled from SalesData, BookNet’s national sales tracking service for the Canadian English-language trade book market, to find out.

Percentage of All Markets sales by pub date age, 2021 (year to date)

A pie chart showing the percentage of year-to-date sales of books in each pub date age. 2-year-old books made up 9.34% of all sales in 2021, followed by 3-year-old books at 7.82%, 4-year-old books at 5.51%, and 5-year-old books at 4.44%.

Looking at 2021 so far, it’s clear that within that band sales are highest when books are two years old, with those titles contributing the most to the 2-5 year age band’s backlist dominance and just over 9% of all book sales. But don’t count the other years out! Three-year-old books make up nearly 8% of all books sold across the country, followed by four-year-old books at 5.5%, and five-year-old books at 4.44%.

It’s not just the total number of units sold in each of these age bands — a higher number of books in that two-year-old pub date age band are seeing sales as well. We counted the number of ISBNs with sales this year from each pub date age band, and once again, two-year-old titles dominate the other age ranges in their group.

Total ISBNs with sales by pub date age, 2021 (year to date)

A bar graph showing the number of ISBNs with sales from each pub date range. So far in 2021 over 48,000 2-year-old ISBNs had sales activity, 39,500 ISBNs of 3-year-old books, 33,000 4-year-old ISBNs, and 5-year-old books at 28,000.

So far in 2021 over 48,000 two-year-old ISBNs had sales activity, compared with 39,500 ISBNs of three-year-old books, 33,000 four-year-old ISBNs, and five-year-old books at 28,000. So not only do two-year-old titles sell better, but there are more of them active across the market compared with each of the other age bands we’re analyzing here.

So maybe it’s time to take a second look at your two-year old backlist and give these titles a second chance! Whether it’s inventory you decide to table in the front of your library or bookstore, or titles you’ve published a few years ago that might be worth surfacing in upcoming sales calls or ad campaigns — the data shows readers are picking up titles from two years ago more than any other backlist age.

2021’s bestselling two-year-old titles

Collage of covers of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy, From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle, and Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston.