I learned a fun fact recently. In Japan, they use more paper for Manga books than they do for toilet paper. I don’t why I love that, but I do.
In North America, the rise of Manga has spurred the rise of graphic novels as a whole. Listen to this: since 2019, sales of graphic novels have jumped over 100%. In 2022, graphic novels represented the third highest selling genre (35 million books sold). Only general fiction (49 million) and romance (36 million) sold more books as a category.
The question is why. And why is it important for you to know even if you may not write graphic novels? Let’s get into it.
Why are graphic novels spiking in popularity?
One of my nephews, who had previously struggled with reading, called to tell us about the graphic novel series he just finished. When I started a thread about graphic novels months ago,
commented about her daughter reading graphic novels till they were “tattered from reading and rereading.”
But it’s not just a young person thing. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds was republished as a graphic novel in 2020. It was suggested to me by a high school teacher who couldn’t stop raving about it not because he made his students read it, but because he couldn’t put it down. I felt the same way.
But what’s driving readers to graphic novels? And why in the last four years has it blown up to become one of the most popular genres despite being around for decades?
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For me, it’s a combination of several factors converging at the same time. The first factor is visual appeal, which itself can be broken into separate parts. When you think of children learning to read, pictures bring the stories to life. It’s why all children’s books are filled with images. Including images in graphic novels makes it easier for children to upgrade from children’s books to more mature storytelling.
But that’s not the only role images play. We’re at about a decade where social media has dominated culture. It’s defined how we consumed content and even why we consume content. Let me explain.
In 2008, independent bookstores across the U.S were on the decline. But from 2009-2015, the number of indie bookstores grew by 35%. Now, it’s rare that a single factor causes something to shift so dramatically. There was a shift to localism during this time period and also a very loud opposition to big business (these were the years immediately after the U.S financial collapse). This was also the early days of the nostalgia movement. This movement was most obvious in fashion, but the book publishing industry was impacted too. This is when older readers were reminiscing on their younger days spent in bookstores and younger readers were recreating those moments via social media.
All of this contributed to the rise in bookstores, but consider this: 2010 is when Instagram came on the scene. It’s when people started frequenting bookshops and snapping pictures with bookshelves as their background. It’s when bookstores started designing their stores so visitors could snap images and post it to their feed.
A picture in a local bookstore became somewhat of a status symbol. It showed that you were cool and intellectual. It’s not unlike the current trend of homeowners asking interior designers to find books for their bookshelf. These homeowners want to portray a certain image, even if they haven’t read any of those books.
What the proliferation of Instagram also did was begin to dictate how we consumed content. Seeing images with short posts underneath became the norm. And I think the success of Instagram, the way it has infiltrated our everyday lives, has created a pattern of consumption—an expectations—that we’ve carried over to graphic novels.
Graphic novels are images with a few words on the page. The stories are deep, exciting, fun, thrilling, and pairing it with imagery brings it to life like a picture book would for a child.
Graphic novels are also less intimidating than traditional novels. They are typically shorter than novels and have much fewer words on each page. These factors make it easier for someone who is typically not a reader to feel comfortable enough to pick up a book and start turning the pages.
Why does this matter for writers?
Authors, what’s stopping you from turning that book idea you’re working on into a graphic novel? I know you’ve been keeping up to date with these posts, so I’m not going to reiterate the importance of trends.
First, think about your audience. Who is reading your books? Or who do you want to read your books? If you haven’t thought about this, you need to. It’s absolutely essential that you know your readers if you hope to market to them effectively and actually sell books.
Let me help you out. The average age of a graphic novel reader is 35, but I’ve found studies that show 46% of readers who prefer comic books/graphic novels are ages 18-29. It’s still mostly males reading graphic novels, but that margin has shrunk considerably over the last decade. Recent statistics show that close to 40% of graphic novel readers are now female.
Something interesting to keep in mind is that about 85% of graphic novel readers prefer print over any other format. So if you are thinking of turning that manuscript into a graphic novel, make sure you’re selling physical copies.
Even if you already have a book out or a manuscript complete, now that you have a general idea about the audience, it’s not too late to consider the graphic novel route.
Graphic novels are not just superhero stories. They’re whatever story you want to tell. So if you do have a story to tell, would it be better told as a graphic novel?
