OpenBook shares insight into January 2026 book sales across fiction, nonfiction, and children’s titles, with insight into what books by foreign authors are also selling well.

By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox

Following the year-end sales, the start to 2026 has seen a return to time-honored favorite books and writers.

On the fiction list, Salty Jokes, the new book by bestselling author Liu Zhenyun, took the top spot (in December, it was #4 on the list), with Zhenyun’s 2009 book Someone to Talk To. Yu Hua’s 2021 book To Live continues to sell well, with Hua’s new book The Story of Lu Keming further down the list.

The classic, Red Crag continues to be in the top 10, with titles by Hugo Award-winning author Liu Cixin, The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End joining the top 10 list. Cixin was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in October and did a fascinating Q&A with the students which was featured in the South China Morning Post in December.

Also joining the larger top 30 were three volumes from the Dragon Raja series, which saw the release of a revised edition. For fiction, readers seemed to be going for tried-and-true classics, books by notable authors they love, and lighter, entertaining reading.

For the nonfiction list, the focus on health and wellness category seems to illustrate the “New Year, New You” mentality of readers. With backlist titles like The Complete Guide to Anti-Inflammatory Foods (2023) and Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle (2022) debuting in the top 30 and other newer wellness titles also gracing the list.

The delightful If History Were a Group of Cats series continues to see strong sales, with many of these editions in the top 10.

The Future Book by Luo Zhenyu, author, founder of the Dedao App, and host of “Journey of Civilization,”  hit the list at number seven after his New Year’s Eve address themed “The World in 1000 Days” which had a viewership of 45 million people and in-depth discussion on social media. The Future Book is incredibly timely as it explores pathways for adaptation and development in the AI age across six dimensions: work & organization, education & personal growth, healthcare & wellness, etc.

As schools entered winter vacation and families celebrated the Chinese New Year, the children’s book market showed seasonal reading patterns, though popular genres differed by channel. Classic children’s literature was popular in physical bookstores, while e-commerce channels saw more practical guidebooks presented in a “comics-plus” format.

The re-release of the film adaptation of Return to the Wolves which is set to be released in February 2026, saw Li Weiyi’s Let Me Accompany You to Return to the Wolves and Looking for the Wolf, enter the top 30.

Fiction Bestsellers

Nonfiction Bestsellers

Children’s Bestsellers

Fiction Bestsellers by International Authors

Nonfiction Bestsellers by International Authors

 

Notes on the Charts

OpenBook is a privately owned industry-data research firm based in Beijing. It functions somewhat as Nielsen and NDP do from the West, and Nielsen Book Research International has worked with OpenBook in Asian operations.

With authoritative data and information resources, OpenBook is able to deliver consulting service to partners who would like to explore the Chinese book market and identify suitable partners.

At last report, OpenBook monitored more than 26,000 online and off-line bookstores.

The online channel includes digital retailers such as large self-operated online stores, platform stores, and small- and medium-sized stores.

The off-line channels include more than 5,100 bookstores. Coverage includes most of the state-owned and influential privately owned bookstores in 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet are not included in OpenBook’s system. In 2024, OpenBook tracked around 82.66 billion RMB in sales (US$11.39 billion). Retail outlets include:

• Traditional bookstores;
• Supermarkets;
• Campus bookstores;
• “Professional” stores, said to be small stores with a specific industrial or trade focus; and
• Airport stores.

In addition, OpenBook is drawing data from online bookstores of three main types:

• The “Tmall” stores of Alibaba (Tmall is described as a marketplace of companies that create storefronts online to sell products including books)
• The “JingDong” Stores of JD.com (similar to Tmall as a marketplace of both individual companies and bookstores operated by JD.com)
• Ten independent online bookselling retailers

Mainland China has 500 or more publishers in operation today. Most of them are government-owned. Private publishers are required to generate ISBNs for their titles from a publishing company that is government-owned—which, in other words, creates a system in which all ISBNs are registered through government channels. The government approves each book published in China.