We already know from NPD Bookscan that tracked consumer print book sales rose 1.3 percent by units in 2018, and soon the AAP will provide us with full revenue statistics for the year. In the meantime, the organization released their StatShot publisher-reported sales statistics for November. As expected, with the release of Michelle Obama’s BECOMING, trade revenues were very strong for the month in advance of holiday sales. Adult trade sales were $620 million, up from $518.5 million last November, and children’s sales were $271.2, up from $231.3 million. In both cases, hardcover books accounted for most of the gains, […]
Industry Statistics
Germany’s Book Trade Trended Slightly Positive in 2018 — Thanks to Price Increases
In 2018, Germans bought fewer books, but paid more for them, according to stats in the January issue of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association’s publication. “The [sales] balance for the year 2018 is … a wafer-thin increase of 0.1 percent” according to the report, but the number of copies sold fell by 1.4 percent. Buyers paid an average of 13.36 euros per book, 1.4 percent more than in 2017. The publication calls Christmas sales “solid,” yet the numbers are similarly mixed. Yes, December sales revenues were 0.5 percent higher than for December 2017, one of only seven months in […]
Print Unit Sales Rose 1.3 Percent in 2018
NPD Bookscan’s final count of unit book sales for 2018 came in at 696 million books, a 1.3 percent gain over the 687 million units tracked in 2017. Adding 9 million units over 2017’s total, that is the smallest gain in the latest 5 years, when the print market has grown continuously, even as the ebook units for traditional publishers have declined by larger amounts. (We have amended our preliminary report from last week, which had included some non-book product.) Per our preview last week, adult nonfiction gained 14 million units on its own, up 4.9 percent over 2018. Cooking […]
Authors Guild Income Survey Sounds Alarms, But Some of the Data Is Encouraging
The Authors Guild published the results of its 2018 Author Income Survey, an expanded polling of 5,067 people they call the largest survey of US professional writers ever conducted. (It included participation from 18 writers organizations and publishing platforms, including Nook Press, the IPBA and Lulu.) But a survey is just that — a measure of those particular 5,000 people that may or may not correspond to the possibly millions of traditionally- and self-published authors. (For one good look at the weakness of author surveys in general, see Jane Friedman’s piece from last June, Author Income Surveys Are Misleading and Flawed—And […]
Print Sales Near 700 Million Units for 2018
NPD Bookscan issued statistics for the final sales week of 2018 as well as the entire year. As we observed a week ago, once again booksellers and publishers held their breath for the final days of pre-Christmas sales, which look to have lifted the season above the previous year’s performance. Michelle Obama’s BECOMING pulled the market, selling approximately 712,000 tracked copies in the last full pre-Christmas week, and adding another 243,000 copies in the final sales week of the year (which included December 23 and 24), registering total hardcover sales of 3.428 million copies. Dav Pilkey’s newest Dog Man book […]
AAP Adult Sales Stable In October, As Children’s Hardcovers Declined
The AAP released their StatShot publisher-reported sales statistics for October, with adult trade sales flat at $599.6 million, and children’s sales down $19.4 million (or 6.8 percent) to $265.5 million. Children’s hardcover sales drove that decline, falling $28.5 million to $115.9 million for the month. In line with the year’s trend, digital audio sales gained $10.2 million, up to $37.4 million, and ebooks edged up by $3.2 million to $83.3 million.