The paperback comeback, by the numbers

Print book sales rose for a third consecutive year in the first half of 2026, and the growth is concentrated in the format publishing had quietly written off: the mass-market paperback.

Paperback unit sales climbed 11 percent year on year, against 2 percent for hardcovers and a flat e-book market. Booksellers credit price sensitivity, the booming secondhand trade normalizing worn spines, and a young readership that treats physical books as both object and signal.

Publishers are responding: three major houses have revived paperback-original imprints for debut fiction, reversing a decade of hardcover-first strategy.