The Value of 'Old' Literature

Or Why do Publishers not promote their back catalogues?

A recent social media post by my publisher, Cranthorpe Millner, got me thinking. On the face of it, there was nothing exceptional about the post which suggested a dozen of their books as suitable father’s day gifts. I am delighted to say, it did include one of my own, ‘Imperfectly Innocent’. What was unusual is that only one of the books was a new release, it made me think how little book publishers or, indeed, bookshops seem to promote back catalogues.

If you walk into almost any bookshop, the table that greets you will not be their best selling books but a display of the latest releases, despite the vast majority of books in the shop being the ‘old literature’. I can’t imagine any bookshop, even on a sale or return basis would stock books that didn’t make a reasonable contribution to turnover, so this suggests that most of the shop’s income comes from what is, essentially, the publisher’s back catalogues. Although I do have a 2026 release on my shelf waiting to be read, the last five books that I have read were published between 2001 and 2023. So why does the book world seem so focussed on the latest releases?

I am sure that if you look at lists of the best selling novels of all time, no two will be exactly the same. One thing they do all tend to show, however, is that with the exception of the Harry Potter novels and the Da Vinci Code, none of them will have been written in the last 25 years. It does indeed appear that there is value in this old literature.

I can understand why book reviews in newspapers and magazines feature new releases, a review of ‘A tale of Two Cities’, which Wikipedia suggests is the best selling novel of all time, is hardly likely to entice people to buy the newspaper/magazine. What puzzled me was why publishers seem to make so little of their back catalogue.

Taking a look at the Facebook pages of the ‘big five’ publishers, showed me that although there are some ‘events’ postings the vast majority were promoting new releases. Perhaps their websites, which donot have the grab your attentiob immediacy of social media posts, would tell a different, more balanced tale. After all, if I wanted to browse what books they have to offer I would look at websites and not social media. So I took a look.

Although the Penguin Books homepage does feature a link to ‘Our Reader’s Favourite Classics’ it is displayed below ‘The Best New Paperbacks’, ‘Discover Your Next Read’ and ‘Must Read Books of 2026’. and does seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Penguin’s owners’ (Penguin Random House) homepage presents a number of focus groups which I suspect reflect marketing goals rather than actual sales. With the exception of a “Picture Books For Children’ group these seemed to be about 80% 2026 releases. For a more in depth analysis I clicked on the ‘Books’ link at the top of their homepage and this took me to a page that invited me to find my next read from a group of categories which, in the order presented are, ‘Best Sellers’, ‘New Releases’,’Coming Soon’, ‘Award Winners’ and ‘More Categories’. I clicked on the ‘Mystery and Thriller’ link in the ‘More categories’ offerings and was presented with a similar set of grouping headings ‘(Best Sellers’, ‘New Releases, etc) albeit for a more focussed selection. Of the top five books in the ‘Best Sellers’ list on the ‘Books’ page and that on the ‘Mystery and Thriller’ page, nine were published in the last 3 months. The first book presented in the overall ‘Best Sellers’ list won’t actually be published until August of this year, some going for a book that, essentially, nobody has been able to read yet.

Harper Collins presented me with a selection of genres to choose from, although lower down on the page there were categories such as ‘Trending Right Now’, Coming Soon,’ and ‘Brand New Books’. I chose the ‘Crime and Thriller’ link from the ‘Genres’ selection. Of the selection presented the 4^th book was an Agatha Christie classic, published well before the 2010 date for a Harper Collins offering. Of the remaining nine, one was published in 2021 and the rest in the period 2024-2026. Not a great perspective on the back catalogue but clearly not simply focussed on new releases.

Bloomsbury presented a scrolling banner of two links to Harry Potter, two links to new releases, and one pre-order. Next on the page was an ‘Everybody’s Talking About Selection’ of three new releases. This was followed by equally ranked links to Harry Potter and to Bloomsbury’s audiobooks (of which the six presented were equally 2025 and 2026 releases). The rest of the page was quite of number of categories, about eighteen or twenty, which had a clear bias towards newly released works.

Hachette offered three tabs, ‘New Releases’, Mental Health Awareness’ and ‘Audiobooks’. ‘New Releases’ speaks for itself, ‘Mental Health Awareness’ had a clear focus on new releases, and ‘Audiobooks’ again featured recent releases, the first six being 2025 releases.

Simon and Shuster, opens with an “Everybody’s Talking About’ selection which features recent (2023 onwards) rather than solely new releases. It then offers a variety of categories from which I chose ‘Crime Fiction’. My impression was that linked page featured novels published in the last 5 years, but it is, at least, a small nod to the publisher’s back catalogue. Going back to the homepage, the next category is the inevitable ‘The Biggest Books for 2026 and Beyond’, but one can hardly blame them for that. After all it is probably the new releases table that draws you into a real bookshop.

My overall impression was a strong focus on the latest releases, which is perhaps not surprising. Where less recent publications were featured, it did seem that there was, in general, little mention of anything that had been published more than five years ago. That seems to me a missed opportunity, especially considering that very few books on ‘Best Sellers Of All Time’ lists were published in the last five years.

In my past career I did spend some time as a Business Development Manager and that part of my brain suggests there are many opportunities up for grabs, not only to promote the back catalogue but to differentiate oneself from the other publishers who don’t promote the value locked up in their archives. Opportunities that would fit well with social media. ‘Our Most Thrilling Thrillers’, ‘Our Most Mysterious Mysteries’, ‘Our Most Fantastic Fantasies’, for example. Or more seriously ‘Young Adult Reads For Discerning Minds’ ‘Short Stories You Will Remember For A Long Time’, or perhaps ‘Truly Historical Fiction’. It really isn’t that difficult to think up snappy headlines for promoting a back catalogue more equally with new and forthcoming releases.

Having written a trilogy, I look forward to being included in ‘A Triumvirate Of Trilogies’ or ‘A Triple Crown Of Trilogies’. Perhaps even ‘Three Is A Magic Number’. Anyone looking for a marketing consultant by any chance?