The AAP’s May StatShot report shows a deepening of the same trends observed in April: revenues from shipments of trade books to accounts were down substantially, due to store closures and postponed releases, as lower returns due to the same factors mitigated some of the “net” sales tabulations for the month. Shipments of trade books…
Industry Statistics
AAP April Report Shows Lower Trade Shipments and Returns, Only Modest eBook Sales Rise
The AAP’s monthly StatShot report for April provides some of the first concrete evidence of the effect of COVID-19 shutdowns on book publishing dollar sales. Note that as usual it reflects data reported from the major mainstream trade publishers, and therefore does not show some of sales boon in products like educational workbooks from some…
Deal Volume Holds, As Investment Declines
A month ago we showed that April dealmaking volume in the US was relatively strong, following a big dropoff in the second half of March. The total number of reported six-figure deals was relatively strong as well looking at March and April combined, running only 4 deals (or 4.6 percent) below the average from the…
AAP Stats Shows Reasonable March Results, As Both Shipments and Returns Declined
The AAP released its Stat Shot statistics for March, showing relatively strong sales in the last days before the widespread onset of physical lockdowns. Overall trade sales were $511.7 million, up from $495.3 million last March — and exceeding the five-year average of $484.1 million. Adult print sales were $235.1 million, up from $223.5 last…
AAP February Stat Shot Recalls Better Days Before the Lockdown
The AAP’s February Stat Shot report, from 1,361 publishers, reminds us that trade publishers were having a good start to the year before the pandemic changed everything. Trade sales were $478.7 million in February, up from $454.5 million, with increases in both adult and children’s shipments, buoyed by adult hardback sales (which have been in…
Bookselling: Easter Book Sales Fall Short; More on the Prospects for Independent Booksellers
NPD Bookscan reported print book sales for the week ending April 11 of 12.47 million units. While that is nicely higher than the previous week, the proper comparison is to the week just before Easter a year ago, since book sales always spike measurably right before the holiday. The comparable week a year ago —…