Industry Statistics

The Ingram Consumer Insights team has a terrific analysis detailing observations from studying the sales of 150,000 titles on Amazon over a three-year period. They chart how Amazon’s “lost” buy boxes for books (which send preferred sales to third-parties) directly correlate to supply chain issues, from the onset of the pandemic to periods of printing shortages. (Unfortunately the study period ends in August 2021, so it does not show us the most recent holiday selling season or any other recent changes.) In normal times, about 25 percent of buy boxes go to third-parties — though the leading winner of those […]

After showing publisher revenue gains in January and February — in contrast to unit declines in customer sell-through as tracked by NPD Bookscan — the AAP’s March 2022 data from StatShot reporting publishers reflected the first decline of the year: Trade sales registered $650.4 million, compared to $691.6 million last year, down 6 percent. That said, however, the comp was extraordinarily high. A year ago, AAP March sales were up a whopping 35 percent. Adult books decreased (8.9) percent to $417.6 million. Hardcover sales were down (22.2) percent to $122.8 million, while trade paperback sales gained 4.7 percent to $150.4 […]

It’s hard for a lot people — sometimes especially in the media — to keep in their heads different and nuanced ideas about statistics at the same time. But following the state of the trade market this year likely involves juggling a few different measures that do not necessarily align neatly. Our simplest, clearest weekly read on the market only tells us so much: NPD Bookscan has reported that US print book sales have been quite stable for the past five weeks, consistently running at 6 percent below the levels reached this time a year ago — and still 16 […]

The AAP released its February 2022 StatShot data from reporting publishers, showing total trade sales of $648 million for the month, an 11.9 percent increase over last year, when sales were $579 million. Adult books increased 7 percent to $443 million, with hardcover sales up 8.8 percent to $129 million and paperback sales up 26.4 percent to $151 million. Mass market sales were down (26.5) percent to $16 million. Children’s and young adult books had overall sales of $205 million, a 24.2 percent increase. Paperbacks saw the highest gains, with sales of $83 million, up 34 percent. Hardcovers were up […]

That supposed “nosedive” in print sales the week after Easter was…completely normal. As NPD Books analyst writes in their weekly media report, “The week after Easter always sees a significant drop of more than 20%, and this year was no exception. It’s perfectly normal.” In fact, “The week after Easter always sees a drop of 20% to 28%.” This year, “Volume was down 24% from last week but was up 10% over the same week in 2019, which was also an Easter week and therefore is a helpful gauge of where we are relative to pre-pandemic numbers…. The week after […]

This time of year, if you focus too much on weekly market sales reports without looking at the broader context – particularly the timing of Easter – you can get confused pretty easily. For the first quarter of 2022 (the 13 weeks ending April 2), print book sales as measured by NPD Bookscan registered 184 million units – 18 million units, or 9 percent, lower than the big first quarter in 2021. But three weeks later, following a good sales week leading in to Easter and natural falloff the following week, the true comparison was clearer – and better: Year-to-date […]