YA Sci-Fi outsells Adult Sci-Fi

I didn't know that. [Link]

Cory Doctorow takes a moment to remind folks going into the bookstore to get his book Little Brother that they need to go into the Young Adult section, not the science fiction section, and then talks about the YA section of the bookstore being something of an undiscovered country, where cool things happen because no one is looking. I think this is an interesting description of the situation because, from a retail point of view, it’s really got things backwards — if we’re comparing which section of the bookstore is the undiscovered country, Young Adult or Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy, it’s SF/F by far, because the simple fact of the matter is that YA kills Adult SF/F, not only in general sales, but specifically in sales the bestselling science fiction and fantasy books in their respective sections.

I have a friend with access to BookScan, which tracks book sales through stores and retail outlets, who at my request checked the aggregate bestseller list sales of adult fantasy and science fiction against the sale of YA fantasy and SF. Without mentioning specific numbers or titles, my friend says that last week, the top 50 YA SF/F bestsellers outsold the top 100 adult SF/F bestsellers (adult SF and F are separate lists) by two to one. So 50 YA titles are selling twice as much as 100 adult SF/F titles. The bestselling YA fantasy book last week (not a Harry Potter book) outsold the bestselling adult fantasy book by nearly four to one; the bestselling YA science fiction title sold three copies for every two copies of the chart-topping adult SF title. And as a final kick in the teeth, YA SF/F is amply represented at top of the general bestselling charts of YA book sales, whereas adult SF/F struggles to get onto the general bestselling adult fiction charts at all.

Wow. That's a lot. It sounds like there is a lot of cool stuff there, but I feel funny as a guy in my late 30's wandering down the YA aisle.