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 slightly ahead of where they were in 2018, and still well below the levels in 2017 and 2016. That recovery has also lagged the overall market, as the pandemic lifted online book sales and hurt physical outlets. When BN was publicly traded their reporting periods […]
Industry Statistics
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 10.8 percent lower — but well ahead of $379 million from June 2019, and ahead of the three-year average of $399 million from 2016 through 2018. Similarly, children’s and YA sales of $183.5 million were $8 million lower than June 2020, off 9 percent — […]
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 $53 million (or 9.1 percent) compared to $580 million in 2020 — but that was when the business was still grappling with the early stages of the pandemic, and before the June burst in sales of books by Black authors that helped lead the year’s […]
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 in the second quarter of 2021 confirms that behavior, across the industry. In the first quarter, US deal volume was 19 percent higher than a year ago (and 21 percent higher than the recent four-year average). For the second quarter, deal volume again registered 18 […]
AAP Stats Remained Strong In April
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 […]
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 […]