The AAP released a revamped version of their StatShot Annual Report on Friday, which features a surprise gift to everyone who values actual data about the book business. After years of presenting only “modeled” (or, in our view, more like “mottled”) charts that aim to guesstimate information about the entire bookselling landscape that is never […]
Industry Statistics
Third Quarter Deal Trends
Next week we will report on dealmaking in the six-week “pre-Frankfurt” window, but first we present the next installment in this year’s new look at quarterly deal trends. The first half of 2021 saw a marked surge in dealmaking, in line with record increases in consumer book sales: First quarter 2021 US deal volume was […]
Bookselling Math
Barnes & Noble ceo James Daunt told PW that the chain’s sales are “up about 5% to 6% so far this year, compared to 2019, with book sales up by double digits.” To put that in context, given BN’s long steady decline prior to Daunt’s tenure, sales look to have come back to a point […]
AAP Sales Confirm Softer June, But Strong First Half
The AAP released their monthly StatShot data for June, along with sub-totals for the first half of 2021, confirming other industry statistics that showed moderating but still robust sales in June after a very strong start to the year. For June, AAP adult trade sales of $411 million were $43 million below June 2020, or […]
AAP May Stats Are A Split Screen
The AAP released their StatShot report for publisher-reported May sales with print book shipments remaining strong — and adult sales in particular — even as consumer sales reflected some falling back to earth with more moderate growth in digital audio and a drop in ebook sales. Total trade sales of $633 million were still up […]
Second Quarter Deals Remain Very Strong
HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray told an investor conference in June that the publisher is, “Being aggressive in terms of buying books. We’ve seen the book pie grow, maybe 15 percent. And so our response, which is part opportunistic and part defensive, is to be aggressive in buying right now.” Our exclusive analysis of deal transactions […]