Last month, sales in print books in fiction overall rose 31.4% in the U.S. from May, according to figures from NPD BookScan, with fiction titles in adult, young adult and juvenile sectors all seeing similar double-digit growth. The author of the “Harry Potter” series, by contrast, saw her print book sales in the U.S. rise just 10.9% in June. “Harry Potter” sales — including licensed titles not authored by Rowling — rose even less, just 7.7% for the month.
Rowling’s slowing sales in June also aren’t consistent with her print sales for the rest of the year, which are up 26.5% compared to the first half of 2019. McLean points to a general upswing in the juvenile title sector starting in March — at first, in non-fiction — as parents scrambled to come up with productive ways to occupy their children’s time as schools shut down in the wake of the pandemic.
McLean declined to speculate on why, citing a lack of consumer research. But it’s hard to ignore that, since the first week of June, Rowling has incurred widespread criticism after she began repeatedly expressing contentious views on transgender identity.