The AAP reported their monthly StatShot sales data for April. In line with other measures such as NPD Bookscan, trade sales remained robust for April, with big continuing gains. Total sales of $689 million were up 34 percent (or $174.5 million) from 514.5 million a year ago. Adult sales of $491 million accounted for most of the increase, up 41.5 percent versus $347 million in 2020, while children’s sales of $198 million were 18 percent higher than $167.5 million last year. eBook sales finally leveled off, at $86 million, down just over $1 million compared to 2020, while digital audio […]
Industry Statistics
AAP Trade Publishers Were Up 35 Percent in March
The AAP released its Stat Shot statistics for March, showing a continuation of the very strong sales recorded at the start of the year. (More current measures, such as NPD Bookscan’s weekly statistics, show the big early gains moderating somewhat starting in mid April). Helped in part by an early Easter, overall trade sales were $685.5 million, up a big 35 percent (or $176 million) from $509.4 million in March 2020. That’s the level of total sales the trade more typically sees in September, when stores are loading up for the busy fall sales season. eBook sales of $84 million […]
Adult and Overall Hardcover Sales Gain in AAP February StatShot
AAP released its February StatShot of publisher-reported sales, showing combined adult and children’s book sales of $580 million, up from $484 million. Adult books led the gains again, with net sales of $413 million, up from $338 million a year ago. In a signal of some strength for new releases, adult hardcover sales of $121 million accounted for much of the increase, up over $31 million compared to last year. Children’s hardcovers were up over $11 million, at $69.5 million for the period. Digital formats continued their trend of gains, with ebook sales still rising, at $94 million, up from […]
Tracked eBook Units Rose 17 Percent in 2020
NPD Bookscan recently reported ebook sales data for the full year 2020, as reported by participating publishers through their PubTrack Digital service. Tracked ebook sales hit 174 million units in 2020, up 17 percent compared to 149 million units in 2019. (For now, the reported data excludes IPG, so these numbers may not align with previous reports.) The biggest gains came in April and May, and when pandemic-fueled ebook sales were up 10 million over the same period in 2019. While it covers a somewhat different pool of participants, Bookscan’s unit data is in line with the AAP’s revenue data, […]
Looking At Interest In Books Post-Pandemic
Ingram Content Group held a webinar on Wednesday reviewing some key learnings and trends for the book publishing industry from 2020, and how those developments are carrying over to 2021. Among the topics covered, the company’s digital sales are even stronger so far in 2021 than they were in 2020, with overall sales up 30 percent — driven by academic digital sales, which are up by more than 120 percent. Looking at consumer behavior around books, Pete McCarthy noted, “We saw in 2020 about a 50 percent rise in book-related searches on Google and Amazon…which is a huge shift.” He […]
Deal Reports Jump In First Quarter — Alongside Print Book Sales
As readers may recall in January we analyzed domestic book deal trends for 2020, finding that deal volume rose measurably, across all major categories — even as financial investment in the biggest deals softened, particularly in adult books. With NPD Bookscan showing print book sales stronger than ever across the first quarter of 2021 — with sales of approximately 186 million units, up a big 26.5 percent compared to 147 million units in 2020 — we looked at our deal report statistics for the same period. In line with those very strong consumer print book sales, our deal reports also […]