The Association of American Publishers released StatShot data for the first three months of the year. In the first quarter, trade sales for adult and children’s titles were up 0.3 percent to $2.02 billion. The return rate across the three months was 15 percent, compared to 15.4 percent in the same period in 2025. Adult books fell half a percentage point to $1.46 billion, with fiction sales of $851 million (up 5.5 percent) and nonfiction sales of $605 million (down 7.8 percent). Hardcovers sold $427 million (down 8.3 percent), paperbacks sold $514 million (up 4.7 percent), audio sold $268 million […]
