2020 was a year of great challenges and for many great pain, yet at the same time by standard statistics it looks to have been a strong year for trade publishing in general. The two main measures of US trade book sales — Bookscan for weekly print sales, and AAP StatShot for monthly publisher dollar sales — both turned positive in June and stayed that way for the rest of the year. Those strong and steady results gave both relief and inspiration to many people throughout our business, demonstrating the enduring importance and value of books to readers and the […]
Industry Statistics
November AAP Sales Rebounded On Big Hardcover Gains
Though we already know how the holiday sales season and year turned out from Bookscan, the AAP released their November StatShot report on Monday, showing a strong month of trade sales. The increases look big — trade sales of $870 million were well up from $649 million a year. But last November was a dismal outlier, so this year’s gain was more of a return to the norm, with sales running a little below the strong $883 million from November 2018. (Sales were $750 million in 2017, and $770 in 2016.) This year’s performance was helped considerably by the publication […]
2020: The Year In Deals
We are working on a broad piece looking at sales trends in 2020 and shifts among various sales channel but before we get to that, we are long overdue for an analysis of Deal trends from the year. (As always, our analysis is based on deal reports at PublishersMarketplace.com. Like all book industry datasets it is not complete; such a thing does not exist. But it’s the only comprehensive dataset on book deals, and is consistent over time.) Overall Stats Broadly speaking, the data aligns with US book sales reports, in that deal volume was up measurably, in all major […]
AAP October Stats Show Trade Gains Continuing
AAP released its StatShot of publisher reported sales for October, with combined adult and children trade sales of $901 million, up from $877 million. Adult book sales were $611 million, up from $554 million in 2019, or 10 percent, with paperback books showing the biggest gain (18 percent). Children’s book sales meanwhile were down by 10 percent overall, to $290 million, despite gains in board books. Ebook sales were $92 million, up from $76 million. Downloaded audio sales were $55 million, up from $47 million. K-12 sales were $104 million, down from $121 million last year. But higher ed showed […]
September AAP StatShot Reports Another Good Month for Trade Books
AAP released its StatShot of publisher reported sales for September, with combined adult and children trade sales of $877 million, up from $718 million, or 22 percent higher. Shipments were up as well, at $978 million, up from $837 million last September, as the trade pushed out fall inventory ahead of the election and the anticipated supply chain challenges later this year. Gains were particularly strong in adult books, where net sales of hardbacks (at $258 million) and paperbacks (at $185 million) were 31 percent and 35 percent higher respectively, and gross shipments were an average of more than 20 […]
People, Etc.
Poets & Writers managing director Melissa Ford Gradel will take over as the organization’s executive director in January, when Elliot Figman steps down, after leading the nonprofit since 1981. Figman said: “It’s been my honor to work together with such talented and passionate colleagues. While parting is, indeed, sweet sorrow, I’m delighted to pass the baton to Melissa, who has a deep understanding of our mission, vision, and values and is uniquely qualified to take the helm. As I reflect on my time at Poets & Writers, I’m so proud that we’ve built this organization to be a widely respected […]