Not even James Patterson or Stephen King have reached a top-twenty spot with a new book on the New York Times‘s Bestseller list this year. Publishers are blaming mediocre sales of adult fiction on lessened media coverage due to recent acts of violence and terrorism and increased political coverage for the 2016 presidential race.
Even so, it’s not time to start panicking yet—many titles are selling well, just not “spectacularly” well like recent breakout hits like All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.