The inaugural Library Beat webinar focuses on adult fiction and features a presentation of data and trends from the Ingram Library Services team.

AUTHORS: PROVEN AND EMERGING

Freida McFadden, Matt Dinniman, and Allen Levi are popular in both library and retail right now.Beyond that, Ingram sees a divergence between consumer and library purchasing patterns. 

Patterson, Steel, Burke, Baldacci, and Patchett are the reliable library names; patrons already know and trust them, and libraries can more easily predict patron demand.

Libraries are not necessarily buying newer authors like Reid, Kennedy, Maas, Brower, and Tessier as aggressively as retailers are pre-publication.

Ingram thinks this may reflect a “try small and see” approach on the part of librarians. This strategy can be effective if the publisher has printed enough units to meet demand since adding more copies in today’s distribution environment is quick and easy. However, if either the publisher or the library has drastically miscalculated demand, libraries risk losing circulation when patrons see long hold queues. Some of the differences Ingram saw in demand patterns between consumer and library purchasing may be related to libraries’ choice of format for some genres and authors, like favoring eBooks for romance titles. If libraries want to be highly successful with younger populations, we may need to accept more risk since there is a “chicken and egg” dynamic at play here. For example, indie bookstores, who are gambling with their own money, have shown that availability drives traffic. It’s also worth watching and tracking to see if retail romance/romantasy buzz becomes patron demand a few months later.

BRIDGE TITLES: THE CROSSOVER

Still, there are some titles that bridge libraries and the retail environment. 

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi is the crossover title. It’s No. 1 at retail and still cracking the library Top 8. This was a paperback hit in both worlds and a strong pick for front-of-library displays.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is the other bridge, showing up on both lists in hardcover while everything around it is paperback—a sign that it’s drawing readers willing to pay for something new, not backlist comfort reads.

THE GENRE SPLIT

Past those two, it’s a genre split. Libraries lean literary and suspense. Whistler, Things We Never Say, Hope Rises, Judge Stone, and The Calamity Club are classic book-club choices. Retail leans romance and SF/action. That kind of concentration often shows up in library holds a season later, so it’s worth watching.

GROWTH GENRES

Only two growth genres overlap, Southern and Literary.

Library growth skews thrillers again, (with subgenres of suspense, psychological, political), plus women’s fiction and coming-of-age. Thrillers are showing up as both a units leader and a growth leader for libraries. This is definitely worth leaning into.

GAME CHANGER

Retail growth is where the LGBTQ+ romance signal shows up clearly. This lines up with what Ingram sees at the author level with Rachel Reid’s three-title sweep of retail’s top titles, and now the genre data confirms it’s a broader retail trend, not just one author.

BACKLIST VS. FRONTLIST

Another observation from Ingram about the split between retail and libraries: Retail runs mostly on backlist—78% of units are older titles, so new releases are actually the minority of retail sales. Libraries flip that: 73% is frontlist, so new releases carry the weight, and backlist is a much smaller share.

That means two things: One, we may not want to weed too aggressively, as readers are not limiting themselves to new releases. There is just more concentrated activity when a title gets media attention. This is why disappearing e-books can be so frustrating—reader demand does not completely die. Two, this data is an opportunity for us to work the backlist harder by suggesting book club picks, creating pathways bookmarks, or putting up “If you liked X” displays.

PUBLISHER UPDATE: THE BIG FIVE

While the “Big Five” continue to dominate sales across the library and retail sectors, other publishers are making solid contributions to the U.S. literary ecosystem, and Ingram knows librarians seek out independent voices for their collections. 

OTHER PUBLISHERS

Topping the list over the last 12 months are W.W. Norton, Spiegel & Grau, Oxford University Press, and Thomas Nelson. Oxford University Press offers well-respected editions of classics that have seen revived popularity due to film releases and influencer promotion on social media sites. Thomas Nelson’s success reflects a broader interest in religion titles in the consumer market.

FICTION LIST PRICE

Average list prices have risen steadily by publication year: Hardcovers are up 10.33%, but quality paperbacks have climbed even faster, up 14.25%. That’s a notable reversal of the old assumption that paperback is the “budget” option. This is something to watch, meaning the format gap is narrowing, which changes the math on format-based collection decisions.

The more telling number is the ratio between the two formats. In 2021, libraries invoiced about 2.1 paperbacks for every hardcover; by 2025 that’s crept up to about 2.15—basically flat. Retail started wider at 2.4 paperbacks per hardcover in 2021 and stretched to 2.65 by 2025—a real, accelerating shift toward paperback. Ingram assumes much of this is due to consumer price sensitivity, but readers also report a preference for items that weigh less.

ADULT FICTION: Average List Price

TITLE COUNT

Finally, let’s look at the title counts by publication year. The book business in the U.S. has remained relatively flat post-pandemic, but publishing output has steadily increased with wider adoption of new technologies, including print on demand and artificial intelligence. This abundance of new titles has added to the work of both retail buyers and collection development librarians, making vendor support even more important.

After all, getting every reader to their book remains complicated. 

ADULT FICTION: Number of Titles by Publication Year

Library correspondent Silvia Lin Hanick is chairperson of the library department at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY) in New York.