The AAP released their monthly StatShot report for November 2012, showing flat trade sales overall but a small spike in the growth of ebooks–which comprised 18.1 percent of all trade revenues in the month.
Adult trade sales of $434.5 million were up $9.6 million from a year ago. Adult hardcovers declined 21.5 percent, at $155.6 million, while trade paperbacks were up 20.6 percent at $116.9 million (though virtually flat compared to October numbers.) As in October, eBooks comprised the third-largest segment for adult books, at $94.8 million — but was just a 20.7 percent increase over $78.5 million a year ago.
Children’s and YA books fell 4.8 percent (further demonstration that the big growth came earlier in the year for this category) at $160.5 million overall. Children’s ebooks added another $12.8 million, up 53 percent from $8.4 million a year ago.
Total ebook sales for the month of $107.6 million were $6.7 million lower than in October, paralleling last year’s drop in ebook sales through the summer and early fall but also consistent with 2012’s slowing of ebook growth percentages. But because overall adult trade sales were lower in November compared to previous months, ebooks comprised 18.1 percent of trade sales for the month (up from 17 percent in September)–their lowest percentage since December 2011. eBooks comprised 21.8 percent of adult sales for the month, and just 6.25 percent of children’s sales.
And as was the case for the previous two months the K-12 market continued to suffer, with sales of $90.7 million down 25.8 percent from a year ago.